The Second Age of Magic
by Coyotzin-Succubus
Summary: The adventures of a Kitsune and a Kindred of the East, in a world where the supernatural have been forced into the open, where humans intermingle with the supernatural. Please Read and Review people!
1. The Setting

World of Darkness: the Second Age of Magic  
  
It's the year of 1840, in the normal world, the Industrial Revolution has changed the world; according to the Kindred, it enlarges their dominion; according to the Fera, the coils of Wyrm and Weaver strangle the land; from the perspective of Mages and Changelings, the Order of Reason has struck a fatal blow to magic. For the Restless Dead, the ranks of the Legions grow from those who died in desperation and by abuse.  
  
This is not the normal world.  
  
Nobody is sure of the exact date, nor the exact reasons, but sometime in the 17th Century, Reality snapped and suddenly, all the supernaturals found themselves in plain view. There was an intense period of conflict as humans reeled in horror at what had been living in their midst and, while they were greater in number, the Others, as the humans called the supernatural races, wielded powerful magics. There were terrible losses on all sides, and conflict was widespread. Thus World War I happened nearly 200 years earlier than in our lifetime, and this one -truly- spanned the whole planet.  
  
What had caused the Others to be seen, also allowed their powers to work unfettered by things like the Shroud, Banality or Paradox; Vampires were not restrained by the Masquerade anymore, and the Garou and the Changing Breeds did not ellicit Delirium.  
  
It was chaos for nearly two decades, as humans fought the Others, and the Others fought among themselves. The war eventually settled and sides were drawn. North America and the European states were a mix and match of human and Other kingdoms and nations. The Middle East fared little better, as there were vast expanses of wilderness where Others established their domains, and left the humans alone. Asia and South America are examples of balance between humans and Others, though they arrived at their state very differently. Africa has been reclaimed by the Wyld, and now it is truly a Dark Continent; no one is sure about what is happening beyond it's shores.  
  
Vampires:   
  
There was no more use of the Masquerade, so the Camarilla no longer served a purpose. Humans were aware of the Kindred, so the Sabbat was fought head on with modern weaponry and great numbers. Thusly, the Sects broke up and the 13 Clans exists independently of one another, forging individual alliances and no longer bound by Princes or Bishops in the old sense. Still, a city is dominated by an elder vampire, either publicly or in hiding. Kindred-ruled nations have specific laws on blood taxes, and specify how much blood a vampire can drink and where can he establish his residence. Other nations or city-states neutral to Kindred have the same laws, which are enforced by other supernaturals or by the Kindred themselves, out of a desire of stability or their inborn territoriality. Kindred-hostile territories consider vampires criminals regardless if they've ever killed or not.  
  
The Kueijin have been recognized by the Asian kingdoms as the overseers of the mandates of Heaven and, though they don't hold political power, they are respected as de facto judges and authorities at best, as spirits of vengeance and destruction at their worst.  
  
Fera:   
  
The Garou Nation has pacified ever since they proclaimed that the Wyrm of Balance had returned, and the Weaver healed. They're now content to keep to their wilderness territories, exacting a sort of Impergium on Weaver, Wyld or Wyrm excesses, not directly against humans or other Changing Breeds. Glass Walkers and BoneGnawers are accepted evils in the cities, though they may be persecuted in Kindred domains. The rest of the Fera are still skeptic of this new age, and keep to themselves in much the same way they've been doing for centuries. Notable exceptions are the Beast Courts of the Hengeyokai in Asia, who have been given absolute power over the wilderness and the Yama World; and the Council of the Spirits, it's mirror in South America. Africa is said to be dominated by selected groups of Fera, who are returnng the continent to the Wyld, but no claims have been verified.  
  
Mages/Sorcerers:   
  
The Order of Reason never had the chance to turn into the Technocracy, and the onslaught of insanity shattered the nascent Conventions. However, they didn't need to worry much, World War I had mages of all convictions fighting against each other, and the Traditions did a much better job at decimating themselves than the Order of Reason ever did. Now, licking their wounds, the surviving mages are not state powers, but keep advisory roles or are individual magical specialists, employed by humans and Others alike. Magically speaking, several universities and institutes teach magic as part of their curriculum, and Traditions and Conventions share Paradigm space. Wondrous machines from the Electrodyne and Differential Engineers share exhibition space with those from Artificers and Celestial Masters, but several members of the Order of Reason still harbor the dream to rid the world of the Other, and work from the shadows against the supernatural.  
  
Wraiths:   
  
The Shadowlands received quite a rich supply of fresh corpses during the War, and the Hierarchy is stronger than ever. The War also served to fray the Shroud and there are certain areas that exist both in the Skinlands -and- in the Shadowlands. These True Necropolis are strange places where visitors can't be sure if the person they are talking to is alive or dead. The reawakening of magic also meant that the ghosts lost a lot of control over the living, as even the simplest of warding rituals recovered their power. In the East, the Jade Emperor is desperatly staving off a civil war in the Yellow Springs, and his control slips as the rebels are helped by free-crossing Hengeyokai, Kuei-jin, Chin'ta and even Shih hunters who have seen that the Emperor owes his allegiance to the Demon Lords.  
  
The Fae/Changelings.   
  
The gates of Arcadia are open, yet not -wide- open. Glamour flows freely now, and several places of wonder have reemerged from the Mists to host the noble Fae who return from Arcadia, without the need to wear a mortal guise. Changelings, even Sidhe changelings, are considered inferior, and a civil war of the Fae around the world is brewing. The Shinma in Asia are not as belligerant, forgiven by the August Personage of Jade, they can now travel freely to their rightful place in Heaven's Bureaucracy, and have renewed their tasks as overseers of nature and magic over Asia with enthusiasm, even to the point of forging deals with the human governments.  
  
Bygones   
  
Even as magic seems to have returned, the Bygones, the creatures of legend, are slow to return from their havens. There are rumors that unicorns roam the Schwarzwald again, and that great reptiles make their way in Africa, but they are still rumors. Here, there not be dragons... yet.  
  
Hunters:   
  
There are no Imbued in this Age; there never was a need, and their time never arrived. Hunter organizations like the Inquisition and the Orphic Circle are more like rogue terrorists nows, fringe groups who lost the justification the secrecy of the Others gave them. Others, like the Arcanum, are barely beginning under public light, as prestigious clubs of scholars. The Autumn People ceased to exist with the influx of magic and Project Twilight will never see the light, though several governments will set up agencies to deal with supernatural affairs, often employing supernaturals themselves.  
  
Special Mortals:   
  
Numina are more frequent now and widely accepted, so Psychics and Sorcerers are accepted as equally as geniuses and talented individuals. Their power is weak, and they're still uncommon. Depending on the domain, Ghouls and Kinfolk can hold special status above the rest of the humans, normal status or criminal status.  
  
Normal Humans.   
  
Despite the powers of the Others, it's still the humans who hold the reins of the world. After the War, consensual reality is still in their hands, and Resonance is more important to the more spiritual creatures like Mages, Wraiths and Changelings. Sheer numbers and greater organization have kept the Vampires and Fera in check, despite their much vaunted power. As individuals, humans have grown more wily, and they have knowledge of little, common rituals against the Others that now have very strong results, as the whole of humanity's subconscious actively back them up (I'm thinking that they can have special uses for Willpower that no supernatural has access to).  
  
Others:   
  
Other supernaturals should be treated in a case-by-case basis; Mummies are still their WoD sourcebook version, not Mummy: the Resurrection's; Fomori (Wyrm), Gorgons (Wyld) and Drones (Weaver) are less frequent, but Chimera and Inanimae are more potent now. Risen are also less frequent, as funeral rituals intended to keep a body from rising are working again.  
  
The World: Gothic-Steampunk   
  
So, why have the Others not conquered the world? Out in the open, they should have the power to do it, right? Wrong. Humans are stronger as a group than as the small herd the Others were used to pushing around. Out in the open, they faced humanity's rage full on, and it didn't treat them kindly. Add to that that as all factions began fighting against each other as well, and you have a picture of the Second Age of Magic: the Others are much fewer in number than they'd be in the WoD's normal history, and this balances the influence they now have, out in the open.  
  
Magic and science work hand in hand, more or less, and it has brought wondrous advances that wouldn't have been possible under the Technocracy's fist. Strange science mixes freely with sorcery, and it's not strange to see a sword-swinging human go against Fae armed with bronze flamethrowers (cold iron is still a strong poison against the Fae).  
  
The Second Age of Magic is an era when anything is possible; it's high fantasy mixed with gritty mysteries, it's magic engines powering great flying zeppelins, a normal human or a member of the Others can carve his own future using his particular strengths, skills and powers. But just because the supernatural is in the open doesn't mean that it has ceased to be a World of Darkness; the Wyrm of Balance has returned, but the demons remain and the Triatic Wyrm of Corruption survived and holds a grudge, darkness still dwells in the hearts of human and Other alike and where you see wonders on the surface, you can scratch and find treason and evil. It's a time of great opportunities, for the better or the worse.  
  
The mood:   
  
We confess: we're anime fans, and we were looking for a setting that would have anime influences while still being WoDish. In the Second Age of Magic, a Mage swordsman could easilly duck it out against pistols, or a Numina-born exorcist have at it against evil spirits. Exalted fits the bill of an anime-influenced fantasy, but we wanted something stranger. And when we talk about anime, we mean -serious- anime, smart storylines are not at odds with spectacular deeds.  
  
Characters:   
  
Players can choose to be part of any of the races in White Wolf books, except the ones from the AEon Continuum (Adventure!, Aberrant and Trinity), and yes, that includes Bygones, Ghouls, Inanimae, Sorcerers, Gypsies, Risen, etc. Strange bloodlines, exotic Changing Breed and things written with munchkinism in mind are discouraged. Exalted are a thing of the mythic past, and don't really belong in this setting, but one or two -might- pop up as allies or adversaries.  
  
The player creates the character following the normal rules in each book, but using common sense when applied to the Second Age of Magic, specially related to Backgrounds and certain powers that deal with the nature of the setting, like Gifts, Arcanoi and Spheres that relate to a weaker barrier between the physical and spiritual worlds.  
  
Normal humans might have other uses for Willpower, but it's still in the works.  
  
Specific questions like "What happened with Caine?" or "Can I play a White Howler?" will be dealt with case by case... we're not in the mood of writing a whole book, and we don't want to trample on White Wolf's copyrights, do we? ^_-  
  
--------  
  
Japan in the Second Age of Magic  
  
1600 marks the beginning of the Tokugawa or Edo period, when Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa united the country and took Japan out of the Warring States Era. He established contact with European traders, and also persecuted Christianity. But when the wave of the War washed over the land of the Rising Sun, the stability and progress that would mark the normal Japan's history shattered. Shen fought in the streets and in the fields, and the Tokuwaga Period became a sad continuation of the Warring States. Some clans and daimyos were controlled by Others, and their neighbors attacked mercilessly.  
  
At the turn of the 18th Century, the Tokuwaga shogunate was gone, and the Meiji emperor was restored, one century and a half earlier than in normal history. BUt emperor Meiji inherited a land more fragmented than ever before, but with the help of Hakken samurai and the Gaki Kuei-jin, he established some sort of feudal hierarchy: territories are governed independently and are almost autonomous, and many are not obligated to obey the emperor.  
  
The warrior caste was still useful, and the samurai of the Second Age of Magic are a bit less educated than their normal history counterparts, as fewer saw any interest in looking for a spiritual side of the way of the sword. Thus, the few swordmasters not only achieved great skill and inner peace; they also conquered magical powers for themselves. The interest in magical swordmanship increased and, by 1840, the samurai is a warrior-sorcerer.  
  
What Meiji did do was keep the contact with the Europeans, confident in the power of the Buddhist and Shinto monks to stave off the Christian mages and their foul influence. What he couldn't predict was the success that mystic technology would gain. Impressed by the magically-powered ships of the European, the empereor hired a host of Artificers from China, who gladly developed their own brand of advanced and subtle technology to outmatch the Europeans.  
  
In 1840, the capital of Japan is Kyoto, not Edo/Tokyo, and Chinese-themed steam technology (powered often by a combination of material and mystical fuel) shares the land with the warrior-mages, the monks and other manifestations of magic. A balanced technology encroaches on the land, as clean steam trains run on Dragon Tracks with permission and even sponsorship from Kuei-jin, Hengeyokai and Shinma alike.  
  
Commerce with the West is limited, and this time, no American gunship will open the ports. When Commodore Perry arrives a few years later, the Great Dragon King of Umi will sink his ship before he fires the first shot.  
  
Imagery tips: refer to Escaflowne for magical machines, also to Sakura Wars, where mystic tech battles demons. Mononoke Hime for stretches of forest dominated by the Beast Gods. 


	2. The Prologue

DISCLAIMER: This Story is Co-Written between me and Alejandro Melchior. Just don't want anyone to think otherwise. :) Now, have fun!  
  
WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC  
  
PROLOGUE  
  
Night befell the streets of Edo, once mighty capital of an empire, now nothing more than the corpses of great manors that still clung to former glories. The full moon cast its light through the windows of a small mansion, home to Shoji Nakamura, an exiled general.  
  
A disembodied foot appeared in the patch of moonlight and soon disappeared again; Unseen Chuckling Wind honored his name and chuckled softly, remembering that Tsukiyomi gifted him with invisibility, as long as he didn't step on Luna's light. He refocused and charted a path through the castle. He was ninja, and he was here to kill Nakamura.  
  
Hikari was prowling the Manor as she always did at nighttime. Her senses on full alert, her mind on the pleasures of the hunt. Her eyes, as black as the night, searched the corridors, piercing the darkness. She was silent, quiet death.  
  
The ninja paused; his nose picked a scent ahead. Kaze, for that was his name, never went inside a building in a mission in other forms except the half-fox. He was kitsune, and a warrior for his race. He climbed the wall and perched on a beam, still cloaked in the Moon Dance.  
  
She had always trusted her instincts and the tickling sensation in her belly told her something was wrong. She rounded a corner, activating her chi sight and searched the corridor.  
  
Kaze caught his breath as the most exquisite woman he'd ever laid eyes upon stepped into the moonlight. He remained motionless, feasting his eyes with the vision before him; it took him a couple of seconds to remember his purpose, and notice the woman's... no, the young girl's stance. She was a sentry; possibly kunoichi herself.  
  
Her keen and supernatural chi sight traveled over the intruder but kept moving as if she hadn't noticed him. Then withot warning, she activated the Black wind and leapt up into the rafters, poised for a strike!   
  
She felt the voice of her P'o as the Demon Chi fueled her frame, but she forced herself to ignore it; she had a duty here, and she was about to cut down the intruder when he dropped to the floor.  
  
Kaze cursed as he evaded an attack that was inhumanly fast; he called upon the blessings of the gods, for he knew this was a battle that'd be hard to avoid. His Rage coursed through his body, promising to sustain him, and the spirits advised him of where his opponent now lay. He drew his opaque wakizashi and held it at the ready, summoning the spirit of the fray to strike down the sentry, lovely as she might be, before she had a chance to attack again.  
  
Hikari grinned predatorily. The intruder was a fox and that promised to be interesting. "Anything to say before you die?"  
  
Kaze fixed all of his senses on her. He grinned. "Only that it's a pity that the Yang in your body will be corrupted by Nakamura's master, Kuei-jin."  
  
Hikari narrowed her eyes as he said this. "Your trickster tactics won't work here, Kitsune!"  
  
"No, really." His guard didn't lower, but his voice had taken a tone of joviality. He was following on a hunch here; though he could sense the Centipede on her, it was reined. "I can see your Chi; it's very pretty; I'd hate to see it darkened by the Yama Kings."  
  
"You're trying to gain time." she whispered, but her voice was not as sure as before. The Kitsune had touched a weak spot. She had always persued life, and corruption of her Yang would destroy that.  
  
"You haven't killed me, have you?" Kaze smiled, secure that the spirits of war he'd prayed to would let him act first if the vampire attacked; still acting on a hunch, he sheathed his sword. "You are not Nakamura's... you're not tainted enough."  
  
"I am here to protect him against the likes of you." She watched him sheath his blade. The time to act would have been now, but she remained motionless.  
  
"Kuei-jin bodyguard?" Kaze shifted slowly to his human form, his orange fur changing to his black messy hair. "Only strong money'd buy that; money from Yama-infested sweatshops to buy European steel and steam."  
  
"Che money!" she spat. "As if that was my reason. It's the thrill off hunting trespassers like you." Her er eyes gleamed dangerously in the darkness. But she had doubts. "How would you know about my employee being Yama infested?" Apart from her beauty, her charisma radiated with every move.  
  
Kaze smiled wider, if that was even possible. His common sense advised to dispose of this creature as soon as possible, but he just couldn't bring himself to destroy such beauty. If he could gain an ally for Gaia...  
  
"I can show you." He offered his open palms. "Nakamura is a bakemono, and his work only advances the goals of demons. Until the next dusk, I won't come close to him, if you will come and see without attempting against my life. If you're not convinced, we can start fighting tomorrow."  
  
She narrowed her eyes, watching the fox closely. A long silence followed, almost uncomfortably long. Finally though Hikari spoke: "Agreed, but don't think I would hesitate to kill you should you try something funny!"  
  
The kitsune relaxed. "You are cruel... would you kill a fox for trying something funny?" He shifted back towards half-fox form, and winked. "Follow, if you can."  
  
A smirk, one which would have made her look cute had the situation been different spread over her lips. "Go ahead, you couldn't lose me!"  
  
"My name is Kaze Kuromori." He said, while slowly pulling out a small knife from the insde of his vest. He stared at the blade... and slowly vanished.  
  
A grin came to her lips as she watched him disappear from plain sight. Again she activated her chi sight, confident she would be able to follow him. "Hikari Kyusenko." she replied. But she worried when her Chi sight wouldn't locate his presence, as if he wasn't in this world anymore.  
  
"Ah great, he's using the Tapestry." She groaned. Hengeyokai always were the same and this one sadly no different. Closing her eyes, she activated and tapped her chi reservoir, crossing the barrier only a moment later. Reopening her eyes, she looked for the fox.  
  
"I'm impressed." He said when she opened her eyes. "This saves us time, come." He signaled to her and walked. The mansion's corridors looked strange beyond the Wall; many of them were choked with cobwebs, and the wood appeared to be warped by time and rot.  
  
She looked around estranged. In the future she'd always check this side off the wall, too. With swift steps she followed the Kitsune.  
  
"Now..." He said... "It should be over here... You see, I had the plans for the physical castle only, it's spirit half is not quite the same, Hikari-chan."  
  
"And who gave you the permission to call me chan?" Her eyes narrowed considerably, beautiful features definately tainted with anger after his words. "Do I look cute to you, eh?" she snarled slightly and the aura of the predator grew very strong indeed.  
  
"Hengeyokai find cute the oddest things." He winked. "I don't know how much time you've walked the land as you are, but I've been around for quite some time, and I can recognize beauty when I see it, even in the form of danger."  
  
He then shrugged as he poked his vulpine head into a door, then turned back to her. "But I can call you Kyusenko-dono if you prefer formalities."  
  
"Refrain from using chan...if you want to see the next day that is." she snarled slightly and turned to look away.   
  
She waited for him to find and show her whatever it was that he had in store for her.   
  
"Tsk, tsk... such temper..." The trickster warrior chuckled and signaled her to look into the same room he had peeked inside moments ago.  
  
She didn't see anything special. Just a room, covered in webs and built of rotten wood, like the rest of the castle's spirit reflecion. She was about to turn to the fox, but she noticed at the last moment how several webs ran to the center of the room.  
  
"Why is it such an offence to find you cute?" The kitsune asked behind her, his comment totally out of place with the strangeness of the room, or maybe just adding to it.  
  
Following the webs to the center of the room with her gaze, she didn't answer the Kitsune's question, but instead tried to figure out what he found so interesting in the room.   
  
"Don't touch the webs." He warned; Hikari suppressed her warrior response to the movement beneath her; it was a fox; the small animal winked at her and hopped with ease among the web strands, standing near the center of the room and sniffing.  
  
She watched silently at what the fox was doing. Her fingers trembled slightly as she stood there, poised, ready to attack the shapechanger if he played a foul trick at any time. Her senses were on full alert and only a slight wrong movement would tick her off.  
  
Kaze snapped to attention suddenly, and Hikari's own senses warned her of incoming danger from above. The fox barked something, but the vampire didn't pay enough attention; she was by far too busy dodging the pony-sized spider that was dropping on her from the ceiling.  
  
It was a hideous beast; its legs were covered with spine-like hair, and it bore a gruesome humanoid face with multiple eyes on the forehead, and a wild tangle of hair flowing like spiderwebs in the wind.  
  
Hikari dodged backwards and snarled furiously, dropping a bit down into a ready position. Her features were now drawn into a mask of anger, but a slight glint in her eyes told a different story. It was a maddening gleam of fun of fighting.   
  
This was more proof than she had cared for, but now her former employer would pay for this.   
  
A soft movement and she suddenly she started a Martial Arts move, fluid motions making her stand up, turn feintly and then with her eyes narrowed, her fist shot forward while she activated her Distant Death Kata.  
  
The spider-demon reared as an unseen Chi force struck it; it was now standing between the two shen. It reared on four of its legs, and tried to hit Hikari, but the vampire was swift, and none of the attacks found its target, however, it put her right in the way of a stream of webbing shooting from the monster's mouth. The sticky substance burned at the touch, and glued her to the ground and wall beside her.  
  
Her gaze would have been enough to kill a mortal, or so any on-looker would have judged as she tried for a second, in vain to get free of the web.   
  
But she wasn't about to give up that easily. Again, she closed her eyes a short moment and then reopened them wide, her muscles tensing, a cry of rage echoing from her lips as she activated another of her vampiric powers. With a spectacular blinding flash, she turned into a living flame of Chi Energy, a corona of blueish fire burning around her suddenly.   
  
The demon screamed in pain, and skittered back a few steps; however, Hikari's flame extinguished too fast; with shocked frustration and rage, she could see the spider regenerating the burns of her Chi fire, and felt her own Chi being drained.  
  
The kitsune suddenly stepped into the picture, rolling between the monster's legs and, supported on his back, kicking the thing's underbelly with both legs.  
  
"Falling Touch!" The kitsune yelled, and the giant spider was knocked over, an incredible stunt for a creature as slight and graceful-looking as the fox-man. Rolling again, he was on her side, cutting her loose from the stinging webstrands. Behind him, the demon was righting itself.  
  
"Don't waste your Chi, Kyusenko-dono!" the fox grunted as he freed her arms.  
  
"You talk! You weren't looking into the mouth of that thing!" she growled back and ripped apart the rest of the webbing, dropping to her feet again and taking on a fighting stance. Her eyes were still narrowed as she gazed at the demon in front of them.   
  
"So...we should probably finish your job together, hm?"   
  
"Its belly is soft." He said as an answer. "Save your Chi; reinforcements should be here soon."   
  
As the spider finally got on its eight legs, the fox added with a chuckle. "-His- reinforcements, I mean."  
  
"I got the point all right. I think I'm underdressed for this occassion."  
  
She smirked and closed her eyes again, reaching within herself, to the darkest pit of her soul, drawing out what she knew was her other part.   
  
Viewed from outside, she suddenly began to shiver slightly and lumps started to form on her body, flesh being poked outwards. A moment later, two large leathery wings with talons at the tips sprang from Hikari's back, claws sprouting from her hands, glinting in the feint light and on all parts of her body, shimmering white spikes sprang from her skin, creating an armor of spikes.  
  
As she now reopened her eyes, they glowed a fierce red.   
  
"Now -that- is uncute." Kaze hid the wave of nausea that washed over him behind the laughter of his race. She now reeked of the Wyrm of Corruption, and he hoped her higher soul prevailed over her shadow nature, or he'd have to resort to much meaner tricks. "I'll distract it."  
  
The kitsune stood straight and gestured in sharp and precise movements, chanting shintoist prayers; around him, a cloud of debris rose, lifted by unseen hands, and shot at the spider demon, dancing around its head and attracting its attention. Never once did the ninja stopped chanting, but instead gave a soft kick to Hikari's monstruous leg as a signal.  
  
Nodding feintly, Demon-Hikari suddenly dashed forward at the signal, claws glinting in the light as she jumped, pounced towards the beast in front of her, aiming her claws and spikes at the monster's head.   
  
The pieces of broken wood fell at her passing, and the spider covered its demonic face with four of its legs. Hikari's demon form tore at them, making huge gashes in the monster's extreminites. Out of the corner of her eyes, a black and orange blur slid benath both of them, and the spider screamed in pain. It tried to push Hikari back, but the spikes from her body dealt more damage. Again, the spider was tossed upside down by an unbelievable force.  
  
Jumping high up, Hikari completed a slow sault and then fell directly towards the spidery thing, feet, forward, elongated claws shimmering with the blood of the monster as she raced downwards, with lethal precision.  
  
Her feet sank into the monster's soft underbelly, covering her with foul-smelling ichor, but the thrashings of the thing were a clear indication that she'd dealt a killing blow. The kitsune got there and decapitated the spider monster with one swift slash of his opaque blade.  
  
The eight-legged carcass began rotting around Hikari, and the head the kitsune ninja held aloft took on the features of a woman she'd seen at her employer's court. One of Nakamura's concubines, she realized.  
  
Looking around quietly for a moment, she shook her head feintly.  
  
"He shouldn't have lied to me." she said with a deep, dangerous voice that was completely unlike her normal voice.   
  
Her eyes searched the immediate area for threats. Out of respect, she didn't step closer to the Kitsune, knowing he wouldn't like it, at least not in this form.   
  
"I feel -so- grateful about honesty right now..." He smiled at her as he tossed the head aside. "We should cross the Wall back; I didn't want to come to the Tapestry until it was aboslutely necessary; that way, we'll only face Nakamura's human and bakemono guards, not any of these ladies."  
  
She nodded feintly and slowly reverted back to her normal form, feeling much better this way in any case. Though still the monster's slime clung to her body and she grumbled something almost inaudible as she prepared to return to the real world.   
  
The room was dark and stale, and the ninja again wore his human guise. In a corner of the room, a woman lay bleeding, red pools staining an ellaborate kimono. It was headless.  
  
"I'll pay your next visit to a bathhouse." Kaze grinned again, as sounds of alarm and shouting were heard in the distance.  
  
"Knowing you foxes, you would only try and sneak in with me." she smirked lightly and looked around the real world, figuring out from where the alarmed shouts came.   
  
"Well, let's get going, shall we?"  
  
"What do you mean 'sneak'?" Kaze flashed her another one of his smiles as he walked to the center of the room, where several webstrands converged in the spirit world. "I would have walked right in!"  
  
His words had a double edge, as he kicked down and shattered a trapdoor.  
  
Another smirk sent his way as she eyed the trapdoor and shrugged her shoulders feintly.   
  
"Just like you boys, not to know what's good for you and not." She brushed back a strand of hair and then motioned to the door.  
  
"After you..."  
  
"You don't trust me yet?" He sounded hurt, but was leaning down already. He dropped down and she heard a splash of water; then the kitsune's jesting voice. "Come on down, the water's great!"  
  
"Yeah, just what I need, more muck and slime on me." she murmured to herself, but eventually dropped down through the door herself.   
  
When she landed, she made sure to check in all directions at once, weary as always, careful as always. She wouldn't have survived this long if she hadn't been careful.  
  
It was pitch black down there, a sewer system of sorts. The darkness was only pierced by two green-glowing eyes. When they winked at her, Hikari realized it was the kitsune.  
  
"Jester..." she smirked and shook her head, activating her chi sight in order to look around herself, not caring for unpleasant surprises. "Are you always in such a good mood?"  
  
"Only when I'm not happy." He answered. They were standing in a long corridor that stretched in both directions. The kitsune spat on his palm and then slapped with his other hand. "That way." He pointed at his right after a few seconds' contemplation of his spread spit. He then started walking close to one of the walls.  
  
Shrugging her shoulders, Hikari followed quietly. So far the little fox had given her more truth than her employee and thus she tendended towards trusting him, at least for now.   
  
But still, she was weary, knowing it could just be a trick to lure her into an ambush, to kill her finally. Hikari liked her life, even if it was just an unlife. She didn't want to die just yet. There were things she needed to do, things which needed to be completed.   
  
They walked for a few minutes, turning corners and making their way into a non-labyrinth: the corridor never branched off, nor it split, yet it twisted and turned around in a senseless pattern. At one point, Hikari noticed the three bushy tails that swayed softly from his guide's romp.  
  
On his part, Kaze was delighted. His hunch had paid off, and he'd gained an invaluable ally, for the night at least. Even if the vampire later turned on him, he'd gotten out of worse scraps in his long and exciting life, and it would add to his repertoire of tales to share at the Courts. And she was -very- cute; had he been a Kataribe bard instead of an Eji warrior, he'd be composing masterful haikus to praise her beauty to her face, just to tick her off. Instead, he just turned his head once in a while to take a peek at her and feast his eyes.  
  
Walking behind the fox, Hikari quietly eyed the three tails for a moment. She wasn't all too well versed on what the tails meant exactly, but she knew for a fact that the more tails, the stronger they were and the older they could get. Three tails was nothing incredible, but not to be underestimated either. She judged him to be the equivalent to herself in experience.  
  
She did note the looks this fox gave her. His head turning slightly when he looked backwards, gazing at her through the darkness and she grinned faintly.  
  
An ally was an ally and if this little fox was interested in her, it could only be good for her.  
  
The turns were sharper and more frequent now, and the walls, which had been stone, now were the natural rock of a cave; there was noise on the way they had come from.  
  
"They won't dare follow." Kaze said. "We must be closer to the Kumo's nesting grounds, and then to Nakamura's chamber. The arrogant bastard must be trusting his spider allies to stop us. Kyusenko-dono... or he may be trusting -you- to stop me."  
  
The human-shaped fox winked, and showed his fingers in the 'victory' sign.  
  
"Don't get cocky, foxboy; I might still consider taking you as a snack later on." She smirked and moved onwards.  
  
Much to her surprise, she indeed found this contiuing happiness, easy-going way of the Kitsune appealing somehow. It made her feel a bit better in such a situation, but she wouldn't tell him that, or else he would never leave her side again.  
  
"If Nakamura's dead by then, it won't matter; I'll have succeeded." The ninja stared straight ahead as he spoke. "At least, it won't matter -much-; I mean, I'm not afraid to die, but it would put a very big obstacle in my plans."  
  
She raised her eyebrows slightly and turned to look at him a moment, then a light grin played over her lips.   
  
"I didn't say I'd kill you, just take a snack from you. Have you ever experienced that?"  
  
"Hmm." He scratched the back of his head. "My father used to chew on me when I was a kit... then there's that time when the crocodile munched on me... ugh... and that dragon-spirit who thought I was tasty and took a bite... No; I don't particularly enjoy being a morsel."  
  
"Heh, I could promise you that all of those things are not quite like being bitten by me." She winked slightly and indicated for him to go on.  
  
"Most assuredly so. Hush." His form shifted to that of the half-fox; he wasn't much bigger nor stronger, but his suppleness was evident in every single movement. He unsheathed his sword and raised three fingers at Hikari, then pointed to the darkness beyond, where the last turn of the corridor led to a huge cavern, half a meter deep in water and with several rock outcroppings. They were on the physical side of the Wall now, which meant that the webs stretching from side to side of the cave were very, very real.  
  
Hikri nodded lightly and edged forward slowly, careful not to make a sound, which she did very well. Her gentle moves were fluid and graceful deadly.   
  
But as this was the kitsune's show, she left it to him to make the first move.   
  
To her utter surprise, he walked right in! His feet splashed loudly until he reached one of the outcroppings.  
  
In the ceiling, something stirred, and was echoed by movement in the water. A huge spider dropped in front of the kitsune, and around him, a bubbling mass coalesced into an abomination with the torso of a man and the lower body of a spider.  
  
"SSssss!!!!" The man-spider hissed in defiance, but the ninja just leaned on the rock and covered a yawn nonchalantly.  
  
She watched the fox quietly, stepping through the entrance now as well, her eyess shifting from the monster to the Kitsune, wondering what the boy was playing at or if he was playing at all.   
  
"Yes, yes, yes." Kaze waved, looking bored. "Now you'll say something about punishing me for trespassing, or about meeting a slow and painful death, but wouldn't you want to hear about Lord Nakamura's orders?"  
  
"Ssshut up, Kitsune!" The giant spider's voice grated on the walls.  
  
"Great... the human hires me to kill you, I come to warn you, and this is the way you treat me? Really..."  
  
The two Kumo paused and looked at each other; a third one appeared out of nowhere, wearing human shape.  
  
"He comesss with the Kuei-jin..."  
  
"Ah, yes.. Kyusenko-dono!" The kitsune called over to the entrance. "Do you mind telling these gentlemen how Lord Nakamura tired of his contract with them and hired us to kill them?"  
  
A slight, cruel smirk crept over the lips of the Kuei-jin Femme Fatale as she licked her lips and walked to the side of Kaze.   
  
"He's quite correct, you fools. You were considered worthless and tossed away. The tossing is our job."  
  
The three werespiders stood quietly, surrounding vampire and kitsune.   
  
"You're wondering why we just didn't kill you." Kaze broke the silence.  
  
"We do, foxman." Now, the three of them had changed to human form.  
  
"Can I conjure up some sake?" He answered. "This might be long."  
  
"Ssssorcer ass well?" The man who had discovered Hikari spoke. "Go ahead; try anything and we'll kill you both."  
  
"Can you stand a little fire?" Kaze whispered to his newfound ally as he stood straight.  
  
"Sure I can..." she whispered quietly, though the thought of the fire didn't make her look all too happy.  
  
She looked at him a moment and then shrugged, making a sweeping gesture for him to begin with whatever he wanted to do.  
  
He showed his hands to the spiders, and turned around to reassure them that he wasn't trying anything. Again, he twisted his fingers in complicated signs and patterns and, without any kind of noise or pyritechnics, a large bottle was lying in front of him. The kitsune picked up the container and uncorked it, smelling the mouth and sighing dreamily.  
  
"Great sake... but you're our hosts, you should have the honor." He extended his arms in offering, but the bottle seemed too much for him and he stumbled ahead; the bottle slipped and flew forward, shatering in one of the rock outcroppings.  
  
"Ready..." He whispered; the smell of oil reached Hikari's nose.  
  
She nodded softly and closed her eyes, summoning up her courage and strength to withstand what was about to come.  
  
She hated fire, especially when she was the attention of it, but she would have to go through it this time.  
  
"Gods, I'm so clumsy!" He pulled out a piece of paper; the side he was hiding from the spiders bore several kanji.  
  
The spiders were suspicious now; one of them shifted to the terrifying half-man form the hengeyokai assumed in their respective species.  
  
"Elemental child, I call thee forth, Fire!" The slip of paper sailed through the air and burst into flame, igniting the oil in the water.  
  
And so it started. The inferno broke out suddenly, flames licking through the room, fueled by the oil her little fox-helper had dropped into the water.  
  
Hikari gritted her teeth and fought against losing control, fought to remain herself and not to run away. She felt the heat, but forced herself to remain where she was.  
  
She heard the scream of the spider closer to the conflagration, saw it dissolve into hundreds of little normal-sized spiders, but there was no escape from the flames. She saw the fox gesture again, and two fiery tongues jumped from the blaze and struck the remaining two, who were too shocked by surprise, anger and fear to dodge. They too began to burn.  
  
She felt a furred hand grab her lower arm, transfixed as she was by the luminous death inflicted on the Kumo.  
  
"Move, girl! Move or we die too!" The system of webs was catching on fire too.  
  
With an effort of will, she tore her gaze away and resumed control over her body, following the little Kitsune quickly, not looking back.  
  
A job well done?  
  
She didn't know, she couldn't even think clearly at the moment. While she ran she tried to calm herself as quickly as possible.  
  
But they were running deeper into the cavern; lit strands of webbing fell around them, hissing as they hit the water in the floor. Kaze stopped, looking around desperately.  
  
"Damnation! It was supposed to be here! The secret door was supposed to be here!"  
  
"And who told you that?" Hikari uttered through gritted teeth, having more and more problems to calm herself and stay controlled.  
  
She glanced around quickly, trying to find what the fox couldn't. She used all senses at her disposal to locate anything like a door.  
  
"Damn, damn, damn." The fox muttered as the flames closed on them and turned around himself, looking up and down.  
  
Hikari could only see rock and burning webs; at a corner of the cave, there were cocoon-like shapes dangling from the ceiling.  
  
Hikari slowly started to feel the fear gripping her heart. She was still able to control herself, but the Wave Soul crept closer and closer, dangerous and stalking her.  
  
"I don't want to panick or anything, but I would remind you that should we stay here any longer, I will freak out and start attacking things at random, including you and I DON'T know if that is part of your plan, but I doubt it, so could you please HURRY!"   
  
She had said the most of the sentence with a sickly sweet voice, but the last word was shouted, making clear her anxiety from what was to come should they stay here any longer.   
  
"You don't need to breathe, right?" The fox turned around, his eyes turned to steel.  
  
"No, I don't need to breathe...why?"   
  
Again, she found herself wondering what he was hinting at, or what his plan was, but she needed a way out and fast!  
  
"Then down!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to push her down into the knee-deep water.  
  
She hissed at first, but it was indeed the only option left. The fire was closing in on them and she needed to be elsewehere or she would not need to worry about doing anything anytime soon.  
  
So she gave in and tried to get under the water, though it wasn't really deep.   
  
Kaze took a hollow reed from one of his hidden pockets and put it to his mouth; he could've easily traveled to the Umbra, or shifted into fox form and darted off with his astounding agility, but he wasn't in the practice of abandoning allies, and he remained in half-fox when he dropped into the water on top of Hikari, shielding her from the burning webs that started to drop around them.  
  
Hikari couldn't see the flames as the kitsune's body blocked the view; he was breathing through the protruding end of his reed, and more than once she felt his body stiffen and shake, but he never moved enought to expose her to the inferno above water level. They spent several minutes like this, and the water became warm. She had lost track of time when the ninja finally rose.  
  
Slowly, she rose along with him, blinking water from her eyes, looking around the cavern in which the inferno had erupted and destroyed.  
  
Her eyes then slowly traveled to Kaze.   
  
There was an unspoken question in her eyes.  
  
Though open hostilities between the shapeshifters and the kindred were rare, there was usually no love left between them.   
  
Certainly not enough to save one when in danger.   
  
The fox offered a sorry spectacle, his fur pasted to his skull and snout, his normally perky ears were down; he turned his back on her.  
  
"Tell me, my vest is ruined, right?" He stretched his arms as if trying to scratch his back. There were indeed holes in the black vest, through which Hikari could se singed fur. "Damn! I liked this vest!"  
  
"Why?" She simply asked.   
  
She couldn't understand, not right now. Too much was happening at the moment.  
  
She was old enough to know that any normal Hengeyokai would have abandoned her. Work together, maybe. Rescue each other, no way!  
  
"Because it's got all these neat pockets inside." Kaze shifted to human form, answering the wrong question, but his eyes said that he knew, and he was just lightening the mood.  
  
She chuckled lightly, though it was a rather dry chuckle as it had been a rather dry joke.   
  
Again, she looked around, and again, she asked.  
  
"Why did you do this?"  
  
"Want to know the practical or the unpractical reasons?" He asked in return as he removed the vest, leaving him with only the sleeves to cover his upper body. He turned the garment around, and oogled at her through one of the holes in the fabric.  
  
She shrugged her delicate shoulders slightly, the water glistening on perfect skin. Her ruffly hair was all wet, a tangly mess, but it somehow only served to make her look more appealing.  
  
Draping her arms across her chest, she gazed at him quietly.  
  
"Both."  
  
"Okay." He squeezed the vest dry. "Practical: I don't catch on fire as easily, and Luna has gifted those kitsune who travel the path of the warrior with the ability to heal quickly. Also, I don't abandon allies; even one-night partners. Unpractical: I kinda like you." He shot her one of the smiles that looked the same in all of his forms.  
  
She raised a delicate brow and watched him a moment longer before she chuckled feintly and nodded.   
  
"So, where to go now, partner?"  
  
"Nakamura's chamber." He answered, donning again the vest and all the secret pockets sewn into it. "Though I'm afraid this little fire already alerted him that something is wrong. Hmmmm...." He looked at a point in the ceiling. "Those didn't burn..."  
  
The cocoons Hikari had noticed earlier still hanged from the ceiling Though charred and covered in soot, there was not much noticeable damage on them.  
  
"Yeah. Seems like they are somehow resistant against fire." she said quietly, walking a few steps, watching the things hanging from the ceiling. "And where is the chamber? You seemed to be searching for it earlier."  
  
"According to my information, there's a corridor that starts somewhere around here and comes out in his chamber. But after this little surprise I'm not so sure anymore. Ewww... those things stink."  
  
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." she muttered and looked around the chamber again.  
  
"I checked this room earlier with all my senses, but there was NO passageway whatsoever. The information must be faulty or there's a passageway I haven't heard of yet."  
  
"Wait... look at the smoke." He pointed at the rising smoke, twirling and dancing up... towards the cocoons. "You know... I've been working under the assumption that Nakamura is human..."  
  
She followed his pointing, gazing at the smoke quietly.  
  
"And you think he isn't. You think he might be a shen of some sort? If that is true, then you may indeed have a lead, though I'm not sure how we could follow it that easily."  
  
"Could you throw a small, cute little fox all the way up there?" He grinned.   
  
"Oh of course, with the utmost pleasure." she grinned slightly and looked up once more. "No problem I would say though you must worry about how to catch a hold."  
  
"I'll think of something." He answered. "Aim at the fat one there."  
  
And he transformed. The small animal held in his eyes all the wisdom and humor he expressed when wearing his other shapes, and his fur was almost healed completely. He stood on his rear legs in front of Hikari.  
  
She grinned lightly and lifted the little fox up into her arms, holding it lightly.   
  
"Now don't get used to this Mr., or I shall see to it personally that you will not be able to hold onto anything anymore. And keep your snout where it belongs."  
  
The fox cocked his head and perked his ears. Even then, the cute innocent look seemed faked.  
  
"Yeah, right." Hikari muttered and shook her head.  
  
"Just remember what I told you when you find yourself between my fangs."  
  
Then she walked beneath the cocoons and looked up. She closed her eyes and directed the chi-flow in her body, strengthening her muscles as she aimed...  
  
And then she threw the little furry thing, judging the distance and using about the right amount of strength.  
  
At the cusp of his flight, Kaze shifted into half-fox and tore at the cocoon; not willing to use his mouth to grab at the sticky substance.He climbed, strands of webbing sticking to his fur. The cocoon, like all the others, was attached to the ceiling not by a web, but by a chain, nailed into the rock on one ended and covered in webbing in the other.  
  
His curiosity took over, and he began scratching at the bloated thing.  
  
"Want to know something funny?" He yelled at Hikari once he'd uncovered what was chained to the ceiling.  
  
"You're about to tell me anyway, so go ahead." she called back, looking up to waht he did quietly, once and then gazing around the room wearily, knowing they might still be surprised if she let down her guard.   
  
"I found Nakamura."  
  
The ninja jumped to a second cocoon and cut at the webbings with his dagger. Hikari wasn't informed of what he found there; he just jumped to a third.  
  
In uncharacteristic silence, the fox returned to the biggest cocoon and examined the ceiling.  
  
"Dead?" She asked with a quiet, serious voice.  
  
"For a month. maybe more, with the webs." He answered seriously.  
  
He poked at the ceiling, and in an instant a bolt of purplish lightning coursed through his frame. Without a sound, he began the long drop down.  
  
It wasn't a conscious reaction, much more that of instinct. She saw an ally drop, she hastened forward and extended her arms, channeling her strength so she might be able to catch him without breaking anything in her own body.   
  
The air smelled of ozone, and his body was smoking and stiff. His heart was still beating, though, and his eyelids flickered.  
  
"Hng... ow..." he said weakly.  
  
"I knew you'd ignore my warning and continue to try and get yourself in situations in which I carry you in my arms." she whispered and an incredibly beautiful smile lit her features for a moment.   
  
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered.  
  
"G-give me... a few... minutes..." His body slowly relaxed, and Hikari could feel the strange sensation of a hengeyokai's regeneration. It wasn't the channeling of stolen ki to repair damage to a dead body; it was a natural process.  
  
She nodded quietly and held the shapeshifter in her arms a few more minutes, delicate fingers curling around the sides of the hengeyokai, seemingly small and weak arms having no problem to hold him all the while without even trembling.   
  
"I'd say... I can stand now..." He spoke hoarsely, but smiling. "But it feels nice here." He winked at her.  
  
"I knew you'd say that." she replied and then gently lowered the fox in the form of man onto the ground, shifting a bit to look up to the ceiling again.   
  
"So what do you suppose? The Kumo's must have taken over the entire place and have run it in his stead, eh?"  
  
Kaze kneeled, his legs still a bit shaky and looked up.  
  
"That's one, but those things are suspended by chains, a Kumo would have used their own webs." He looked grim. "The other cocoons are children."  
  
"Children?"   
  
Hikari looked up again, wondering why in all Yomi worlds someone would hang him and children on the ceiling of a cave, put him into thick spider's webbing, but use a chain for the hanging.   
  
"Say, has this guy had children?"  
  
"All grown up." He answered. "All of them already in the emperor's army. There's a grill on hinges up there; I was trying to push it open when I must have activated some sort of trap."  
  
"You sure they're all still alive and not replaced? I mean what if the somebastard saw it fit to murder the children and replace them with doubles to have more connections in the family?"  
  
She shrugged quietly.  
  
"But anyway, maybe that grill leads us somewhere. You think it's safe to open now?"  
  
"No idea." He answered. "It didn't look like anything I've seen.... in our lands." He frowned. "Chains... metal... I think we're dealing with Western Chin'ta..."  
  
A look of revulsion came onto those beautiful features for a moment.   
  
"You don't think that the Kin-jin have anything to do with this, do you? Although i would believe them to be able to do something like this."  
  
"If the Kumo are willing to ally with them." He finally stood up. "But I don't know. Let's go up there again." He added as an afterthought. "But carefully this time."  
  
"Carefully, eh?"   
  
She grinned lightly.   
  
"That word doesn't fit you, little fox." she said quietly and grinned.   
  
Then she stood a moment, looking up at the ceiling, apparently trying to decide how to best approach the problem.   
  
"Throw me again." He said. "I think I can make some rope out of that gooey stuff."  
  
"Ewww...you're sick." she murmured, but nodded and waited until he had shifted, picking the little fox up again, cradling him in her arms until she was in a good position to throw.   
  
Again she took together her strength and then aimed.  
  
Then she let lose the furry projectile, throwing the fox high into the air.   
  
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." He yelled when he recovered his human form, with a soft laughter.  
  
He began to slice the fattest cocoon, and weaved a rope out of the strands. He lowered it as he was making it, and soon it reached a height Hikari could jump to.  
  
Hikari grumbled something which Kaze couldn't understand and leapt high into the air.  
  
With a graceful sault, added for fun, she caught a hold of the rope made from spider's webbing.   
  
Then she crawled upwards, quickly reaching Kaze and perching herself next to him.  
  
"Hi." He grinned and took the makeshift rope back. Now Hikari could see the chains supporting the cocoons, what she also saw was the Yin energy that permeated the cold metal.  
  
"I tested the web." He added. "It's lightning proof."  
  
"Well, these chains are full of Yin energy. That COULD be due to the dead bodies, but there might be other reasons, don't you think?"  
  
She looked around quietly a moment and then gazed to the grill quietly.  
  
"Huh?" He squinted hard at the chains. "You're right... Well, if this stuff wasn't so gross it'd make for a great toy." His comment was due to his molding of the rope into a pair of coverings for his hands. "Here I go again."  
  
Before Hikari could react, he put his hands to the grill... and nothing happened. With a wide grin of satisfaction, he pushed up, and the grill clanked loose. It was almost dead center above the cocoon and, once Kaze pushed it all the way open, there was a slight wiff of cold air.  
  
"I have a bad feeling about this." Hikari muttered as she glanced upwards again and shook her head.   
  
She locked her gaze on the little fox and raised a brow.   
  
He winked at her and produced a small mirror. He unknotted his short sword's scabbard from the back of his waist and attached the mirror at its end, slowly raising it up the open grill. The reflection revealed massive shapes with all sort of blinking lights in them, none of them moving.  
  
"Looks safe." Kaze whispered.  
  
"Whatever you say." she murmured.  
  
This time it was her who reacted before he could react. With an agility beyond anything human and a speed to match she slipped up through the hole, not touching the dangerous areas once.   
  
Then she looked around herself, ready for any kind of attack.   
  
Her sight adapted to the shadows as she scanned the room. It was the size of a small barn, and there were all sorts of whirring noises all around her. She stopped at the only shape that looked like it was alive: a crouched man, maybe; he moved as if he was breathing, yet her Chi sight revealed no signs of life. Next to her, she felt the presence of the kitsune, and his eyes were once more glowing green.  
  
"Nakamura?" He murmured when hea also came across the crouching man.  
  
She looked at the hunched figure, trying to make out who it was definately.   
  
The room was strange, filled with things she hadn't seen here before, and she idly wondered what this room was all about.   
  
The kitsune walked about slowly, until he came to a point in the wall. Slowly, light shone in the room, revealing all sorts of strange metal machinery, and the ninja was manipulating something.   
  
"Seems Lord Nakamura was fond of the Westerners' gaslight system. We should ask him."   
  
Hikari followed his gaze and there, indeed, sat Sakamura.  
  
"I have not sent for you". This living lord said, moving and speaking despite Hikari being sure that no Chi ran through his body.  
  
"What's this? There's no Chi in his body, how come he moves and speaks as if he were alive?"  
  
She gazed at the Kitsune, then back to Nakamura. Then an idea formed in her mind and she looked back to the Kitsune.  
  
"You mean Nakamura was... a..."  
  
"What is your business." The Nakamura in front of them spoke again. The whirring was there again, and now Hikari could see the chains from below run into several of the machines, and now under the gaslight she could also see that the chains were not entirely iron, but laced with a copperish cast and a letter in the shape of a rune inscribed on each link.  
  
"That's a bit too much, don't you think?"   
  
Hikari gazed at the thing that was Nakamura and rounded it slowly, carefully, wondering what to expect from it.   
  
She was puzzled at what she found: all sort of cables and hoses coming from his back, connected to one of the machines against the wall.  
  
"A clockwork man?" Kaze was suddenly at her side, peering from behind her shoulder.  
  
"Ummm...a damn machine as it seems." she replied, not quite sure what to say.  
  
Had she really been in service to THIS?  
  
Kaze left her side, strangely warm for a vampire, yet he remembered that her Yang was strong. He didn't know much about the Kuei-jin, but he knew that some of them were closer to being alive by their embrace of the energies of life. He found the chains that went down to the other cocoons and followed them up; all of them ended at one of the machines, and he peered closer to read the gauges.  
  
"Dear gods..." He snapped upright."The children... Nakamura himself." Hikari found the look of rage across the kitsune's feature frightening for its unusualness. "They're power sources!"  
  
Hikari spun around and eyed Kaze a moment, then followed his gaze and found that he was absolutely right.  
  
"Batteries..." she whispered.   
  
It was something that she didn't find entertaining at all. Yes, she used other people's energies to survive, but she didn't kill and keep them in cocoons as slaves. this was something far more...cruel and evil.   
  
Kaze leaned down on the grill and pulled it open on a second panel, he began pulling one of the chains.  
  
"The children might still be alive! Help me!"  
  
Wasting no further words, Hikari nodded and came to Kaze's side quickly, adding her undead strength to his own, easily pulling the chain upwards.   
  
"I'll free them." He said grimly as they let the cocoon rest on the floor. "Get the others."  
  
Nodding again, Hikari began working tirelessy, pulling up the other cocoons quickly with her supernatural strength and placing them next to the first they had pulled up.   
  
Then she began tearing at the webbing, though her claws were not extended, since she feared to harm the children.   
  
Both shen worked frantically, finding to their mutual horror desicated corpses next to comatose children, all lumped together and all of them connected to the chain by manacles. Kaze picked the locks of all of them, but the final tally was only seven children still living, among nearly 20, and three of them died in their arms.   
  
The kitsune sat crosslegged, his head buried in his chest.  
  
Hikari looked down quietly.   
  
Death was in the air and she leaned back against a wall, not daring to say a word. She had seen death in many ways, she remembered death, remembered hell and she could only hope these children would not suffer the same thing.   
  
Slowly, she walked over to the Hengeyokai, who sat with an empty gaze on his features. As a creature of the night, a creature of death, Hikari could cope with the situation at hand much better of course.   
  
A gentle hand slowly slid on the shoulder of the fox-warrior.   
  
"We should get the children some help." He said, staring at the morbid landscape of mummified flesh and foreign machines. "And bury the dead."  
  
Hikari nodded lightly, but didn't react yet.   
  
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered quietly.   
  
Sometimes she hated herself for waht she was and this was one of these moments. She indeed felt saddened about all the death in here, but she could never feel the same intensity of such a thing as Kaze did.   
  
"Yes." He smiled weakly at her. "I've seen worse."  
  
There was no lie in his words, but Hikari suspected that each time had affected him the same way.  
  
"Just let me do one last thing." He stood up before the dead children, and began muttering something, rubbing his hands together. He slowly shifted to the half-fox, and didn's stop until his animal shape barked silently. The room felt less depressing, somehow, and even Hikari felt the voice of her P'o quiet.  
  
"Great Mother." Kaze returned to human form to finish the ritual. "Grant these children your mercy, save their spirits from the clutches of darkness and bless with your hand their remains so that they can walk free by your side."  
  
"Let's destroy this place. Whoever built it is long gone now." He turned to her.  
  
Hikari nodded quietly and in agreement.   
  
She watched the Kitsune a moment, inclining her head and trying to see what all of this was leading to. But as life had it with her, she wouldn't know until it happened.   
  
So she set out to destroy the place.   
  
Hours later, soldiers and peasants were hurrying to the burning mansion of Shoji Nakamura; answeres were not fothcoming as to the cause to the fire; the only important thing was to keep the flames from leaping to other buildings. The appearance of four emaciated children at a couple of local temples' doors would not even be noticed by investigators, much less connected.  
  
Two lone figures walked the streets of Edo, heading away from the last temple they had deposited a child at. Kaze was quiet, but his walk was brisk. And when Kaze next turned to look at the beautiful Kuei-jin he had encountered during this night, she was gone, whisked away into nothingness. He halted, perplexed, for not even his supernatural senses had told him that she was changing paths.  
  
But she was gone... 


	3. First Scroll: Nurturing Waters

WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC  
  
FIRST SCROLL  
  
NURTURING WATERS  
  
8 Days Later  
  
------------  
  
After the episode in her former employees mansion, Hikari couldn't rest fora long while. The days seemed to grow into eternity as she lay awake and thought about how she had been used, deceived. All the years of her existance, all her experience hadn't let her see the truth, hadn't let her see past the curtain of deception.  
  
Or had she let herself be fooled...?  
  
Another night settled over the city when Hikari first stepped out of her home. Sparkling eyes stared off into the darkness of the starless night, searching for answers that weren't to be found. Though her beauty was still stunning to behold, she was a mere shadow of herself. She hadn't fed for days as she had sat motionless at home, letting the events pass before her minds eye again and again.   
  
Over 200 years and still so naive...?  
  
200 years in which she had seen deception, had been subject to all kinds of deceivers and tricksters. People who had wanted to get her power, her attention or her body. She had been able to look through most of them, slowly developing a sense for the truth and the powers that her undead state gave her only strengthened that perception.   
  
Yet she had been fooled again...  
  
A warm breeze picked up and played through her hair softly, touching cold flesh, oblivious to any sense from outside at the moment.   
  
She was weak, she knew that and still she couldn't bring herself to hunt. Something blocked her. Maybe the image of all those dead body...the dead children was still too fresh in her mind. Or maybe it was the look of grief on the features of the Kitsune.   
  
Kaze...  
  
The Kitsune who had showed her the truth...  
  
The Kitsune who had been able to feel real grief for these children, feelings so strong that Hikari wished, like so often before, that she could again feel such feelings and be it only dread. But she was deprived of that priviledge.  
  
The strongest feeling came from the hunt, the thrill of being the predator...  
  
And the sapping of chi...  
  
The theft...  
  
How she envied Kaze for being able to feel the passions of feelings, the turmoil of emotions.   
  
The essence of life...  
  
But she wasn't alive and thus, she was not to enjoy that priviledge.   
  
Her eyes slowly focussed on the buildings around her, the people who walked past, slowing down to get a good look at her, men and women alike. Their eyes were filled with admiration, envy, lust when they looked at her perfect figure, almost divine beauty.   
  
But what was beauty without passion?  
  
She shook her head quietly and began to wander down the road aimlessly. For the mortals she was an extremely beautiful female, a sight to behold, a girl to fall in love with immediately.  
  
For any supernatural being, she was weak, her reservoirs of energy almost dried up from the many days spent without feeding.  
  
An easy target...  
  
---  
  
The temple maiden bowed politely, answering the greeting by the gentleman who had brought the starving child and was still inquiring about her health. Kaze Kuromori left the last temple where he and the vampire had brought the last survivor to the atrocities in Nakamura castle.  
  
He had informed Lord Tenryu, who presided over the Court of the Ten Thousand Tents, just outside Edo, and had managed to convince the old Middle Dragon to sponsor the children into a life of righteousness. During the nights, a fellow Kitsune sorcerer and a Hakken shaman had slipped into the temples and used the gifts the spirits had bestowed upon them to restore the children's health... and to get any information on what had transpired inside the castle.  
  
Kaze walked among the throng of Edo's night residents, who were marveling at the gaslight that had been installed mere months before after proving their efficiency in Kyoto. So, the night had ceased to be the exclusive province of thieves, scoundrels, thugs and prostitutes, something Kaze regretted a bit, since he was one of the scoundrels.  
  
"Hey, boss." A beggar called to him. The Kitsune, now dressed in elegant yet not expensive clothes, turned and recognized one of his informants, part of the Go-en network he'd labored to build over the decades and spanned most of Asia.  
  
"Taking a bath doesn't mean just dunking your head in the river." Kaze replied with a chuckle, handing a coin to the dirty man.  
  
"That's funny, boss, really." The beggar's irony was unmistakeable. "I found the lady you were looking for."  
  
"You did?" Kaze hadn't expected results this soon. He wanted to thank the Kuei-jin for her help, something he'd forgotten to do amid his outrage.  
  
"Yes, anyone wit that kinda looks ain't that hard to track down, once you know what to look for, eh?" The beggar chuckled. "What a sweet thing, boss! Stole your heart, did she? Finally met the lady to do that."  
  
"She just has it on lease." Kaze teased back, tossing a white lie to humor the beggar and keep their professional relationship at the friendly level. "So, where is she?"  
  
---  
  
Hikari stumbled on someone, she'd been edging along the street aimlessly, her mind wandering and trying to keep her attention on each step she was taking and not minding anything else. She must be walking near the night district, judging from the sounds of raucous abandon. She'd have found it easy to hunt here, her beauty baiting any drunken and overconfident male into her parasytic embrace.  
  
But she wasn't making the effort, for in every face she encountered she found a kaleidoscopic display of human emotion. She stopped, just standing there. Her age and experience allowed her to tap into ambient Chi, or to steal it from her victim's breath, but it was only when she drank the life-energy from the blood of mortals that she felt close to being alive, and she wasn't in the mood for drinking.  
  
"And what is such a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this... and looking like -that-?" Someone asked.  
  
She snarled, ready to bat away the drunken man whom she'd been sparing from her feeding tonight. But the angry retort died in her throat when she met the eyes of the man addressing her. She saw eyes almost as old as hers, but which hadn't lost the twinkle of joy found most often in children and madmen. They were fox eyes.  
  
"Kaze...?"  
  
"Kyusenko-dono." He bowed politely, his robe rustling softly against his hakama. "If I may say so, but you are a mess."  
  
"You... you don't say..." Hikari curled her perfect lips in mocking, better to hide her surprise at stumbling on the Kitsune.  
  
"You've been hard to find, for such a pretty lady as you. May you grant me the honor of walking by my side?"  
  
"I'm busy at the moment."  
  
"Aaaaaah." The young-looking warrior appraised the surroundings. "People-watching. Mh hm... interesting."  
  
"What I do is none of your business." Hikari withdrew a step. The fox was irradiating everything she wasn't: full of life, and the joy of it. It almost hurt.  
  
"You can't tell that to the likes of me and expect to be left alone, Kyusenko-dono." He grinned. "And unreadable as you are, I have experience in reading crowds, and you were the only one without an apparent purpose so I ask of you..."  
  
And he kneeled and touched his forehead to the ground; the people stopped by Hikari's looks now stopped to watch, what to their eyes must seem a rather pathetic confession.  
  
"S-stop doing that!" Hikari looked around her, noting all the attention.  
  
"Pleeeeeease, oh pleeeease, walk with me!" The kitsune rose only slightly, hands clasped together and a ridicuoulously exaggerated expression of pleading.  
  
"Go away!" She shushed him; she wasn't ashamed for the show he was making of himself, but she was worried that it might attract the wrong attention. "Oh, right! I'll go! Now stand!"  
  
Kaze stood with one short jump, looking radiant.  
  
"Thank you, Kyusenko-dono!" He beamed at her.  
  
Kaze stepped forward and stopped, looking back... by actually bending backwards, to confirm she was following. His hair was a wild tangle tonight, unlike the night they'd met when it was slickly combed back. The kuei-jin shook her head and followed next to him, a minor affront to social custom that demanded women to pace behind men when walking together.  
  
"You are weak." He said more seriously now, and in a much lower voice. "How long since you fed?"  
  
There was a true tone of concern in his words. Hikari remained silent.  
  
"That long, eh?" He said in answer to the girl's silence. "Come; I promised to pay your next visit to the bath house, and I'm a man of my word... that's why I seldom give it."  
  
He smiled, such an easy gesture for him. Kaze surprised himself by his worry; normally, he'd care less if a vampire was low in his stolen Chi reservoirs, for it meant it hadn't stole it from someone, or somewhere. But after reviewing how readily Hikari had run to his aid when rescuing the children, and her attempts to comfort him, he was seeing this vampire in particular as much more than just a Chi-sucker. And he yearned to watch the Yang infuse her body; right now, the energy of death was stronger, giving her a pale and drawn cast, yet her stunning beauty remained. Her kimono was loosely tied on purpose, letting the chest flaps move with her every step to show the skin beneath. If he didn't know her, he'd have believed her a rogue prostitute advertising her wares.  
  
"A bath?" The girl asked, in disbelief.  
  
"Yes!" He nodded. "I know this bath house, pretty neat, belongs to a friend of mine. It's a bit in the outskirts of the city, but it's very relaxing... and built on top of a dragon track." He whispered the last part. "You will regain your strength by just soaking in the water. You'll feel better... and I promise not to sneak in!"  
  
Hikari stared at the fox disbelievingly still. A bath? That was what he had to offer at a time like this? A fox offering a chi-sucker like herself a kind of date?  
  
It was a strange thing, stranger still than the cooperation between the two. Cooperation happened when a common foe arose, but never had she heard of a Kuei-jin cooperating with a Hengeyokai and tell of any other meetings afterwards. But this Kitsune had followed her, had sought her out to do just that.  
  
To meet her again...  
  
Her gaze traveled over the Kitsune quietly and she tried to decide what to do. The two of them were so different and he reminded her of everything she wanted to be, but could never be again. His mere presence almost tortured her, every twinkle of the eyes, every jovial smile. Yet still she found the attention he gave her pleasing. She found the concern in his voice flattering and was surprised to hear such concern from a shapeshifter. She craved for such feelings towards her and those two parts inside her now struggled against each other.  
  
One part won...  
  
"All right, but I swear if you DO peak in on me, it'll be your last peek!" she murmured and nodded quietly.  
  
"Great!" Kaze smiled an honest smile, glad that this Kuei-jin accepted his offer. Nudging her lightly, he indicated a way down the road and Hikari slowly began to follow him.  
  
Her lack of strength was visible in her every moves. If it hadn't been for the fact that she was a killer, a predator and a demon, she would have awakened pity in almost anyone. No mortal could see the loss of elegance in her moves, doubly so since no one had seen her in action like Kaze had.   
  
Back in the mansion she had moved with unearthy grace, her steps and her attacks filled with a beauty beyond human comprehension. What seemed even more appealing than her stunning beauty was the charisma she had radiated in that night. An aura of elegance, grace and sadly death as well.   
  
She was the predator in perfection, claoked in the body of a beauty queen and Kaze's supernatural eyes had seen every ounce of strength in her moves, the strength grown from centuries.   
  
And now it was gone, having made way for deathly precision. Though the outer beauty remained, the inner beauty had been dimished.  
  
Hikari stayed quiet while they walked, not speaking a word out of her own accord. She was still trying to find an answer to the question why this Kitsune obviously had taken an interest in her that went beyond trying to find her weak spots.   
  
Once in a while she looked at him from the corner of her eyes, admiring the life in his steps, the emotions he radiated with every second, longing to feel those emotions inside herself or to be part of them at least.   
  
Part of her was repulsed by this, her dark inner self, creeping at the edge of her perception, trying to find a possibility to take control of her. The demon lurked as always, at the moment stronger than ever, due to her lack of energy. But she kept it tightly under control, not wanting to hurt the strange shapeshifter who had helped her see the truth and now even seemed to be concerned for her.   
  
People passing them made way for the strange couple, the eyes of women and men alike drifting to both of them, admiring Hikari for her beauty and Kaze for his luck to have such a woman beside him. Little could they know that they were natural opposites, natural enemies really. Little did they know about the inner voices telling both of them to get rid of the other better sooner than later.   
  
But for the moment, they both kept the voices down and instead focussed on their interest in the other. Both told themselves that it was to find out why the other had acted the way he or she had during their last encounter.   
  
Hikari wanting to find out why the Kitsune had searched for her even after the mission...  
  
Kaze wanting to find out why the Kuei-jin had shown true concern and gentleness when he had been so enraged...  
  
But would they ever find out?  
  
The kitsune walked with a swaying gait, amused by both Hikari's doubts and his own. He'd seen her in combat, and he was sure she would best him in a direct confrontation, but his breed wasn't known for being fierce warriors, that was the wolves' job. No, his way of the warrior lay more in infiltration and trickery, deception and illusion. And he was good at reading others, be them humans or shen.  
  
So he could read the confusion in the deadly beauty walking beside him; her silence spoke to him against her will, and the mere fact that she hadn't fed since their battle in the Nakamura mansion lay in the open more things than she surely wanted to reveal.  
  
Had she been a mortal woman, he'd have put an arm around her shoulder in assurance, but as he could read her struggle, his mystical senses picked up on the demon waiting just below her surface. So he contented in being there.  
  
"Ah, here we are!" They'd been walking in a field road just out of the last city gate, so the lights from the city were clearly visible. The gates to the mansion they reached were wide open, with the wooden sign marking its purpose lit by flickering and floating lights.  
  
"What magic is this?" Hikari wondered, not wanting to squander her meager Chi reserves to determine the lights' source.  
  
"Fireflies." Kaze smiled. "They are Kim-chan's friends; she's the owner of this place."  
  
Hikari followed the kitsune inside, and entered the most beautiful garden she'd seen in her whole immortal life. The cultured gardens found in nobles' mansions had nothing on this one: they were artificial, the nature coaxed into achieving shapes to please human eyes. No, this was nature growing by itself, achieving a harmony and perfection no human gardener... no, no gardener at all, would ever hope to achieve.  
  
Paper lanterns hung from posts along the narrow winding road, guiding night visitors across two bridges into the warmly lit house. Hikari could hear gentle laughter inside. For some strange reason, she was afraid to go in.  
  
"Kim-chan! She's with me! You can lift the wards!" Kaze shouted.  
  
"Since when you keep the company of the dead?" A petite woman, barely older than Hikari's apparent self, appeared in the middle of the last bridge that separated them from the house. A silk chinese dress clung to her slim figure, and her every move radiated magic. The embroidered dragon in the dress seemed to move. She wasn't as beautiful as Hikari, but she had a preternatural air about her that made her irresistible.  
  
"Kim Yi Hwang, this is Hikari Kyusenko; she assisted me in the Nakamura incident." Kaze introduced both girls, then whispered to the kuei-jin. "Be careful; she's way older than both of us put together."  
  
"Why would a Kuei-jin assist you?" The girl, now with her chinese features fully under the lamps light, put her hand on her hips. Her hair was held in twin buns in typical chinese fashion.  
  
"Her reasons are her own, Kim-chan." Kaze winked. "Suffice to say that I alone wouldn't have been able to get those children to safety, nor defeat the Yomi spirit we ran into. She's my friend, and she comes to this house by my invitation."  
  
Kim's frown was cute beyond words. "Right, Silent-Chuckling-Wind. But she can't feed on my guests."  
  
"I swear..." Hikari started an apology.  
  
"You may come in, Kuei-jin, and by Silent-Chuckling-Wind's invitation, you may absorb the Chi from the pools. But you will leave when he does." The owner of the bath house interrupted. "And you, old fox; I don't want to hear the ladies complaining about missing towels!"  
  
"I shall leave the towels alone. And the buckets. Soap too." The kitsune bowed with his hands over his head.  
  
"Fine." The girl straightened. Then her form blurred and turned watery, and she sank in the pond beneath the bridge. Hikari's apprehension disappeared.  
  
"She's Shinma; a water nymph to be precise." Kaze explained as he lead the way. "Enjoy your bath."  
  
He smiled and bowed courteously when they reached the reception, the curtains with kanjis for "men" and "women" dividing their way.  
  
A few minutes later, Kaze relaxed in the hot bath, listening idly to the conversations around him. Few shen were allowed to enjoy the healing and nurishing pools of this bath house. The Shinma had built it specifically for mortals, and no envoy from the Beast Courts or the Qincunx had ever secured rights for its members to enter; only individual shen could win the right by their deeds. Nobody defied the wards of the messengers of Heaven.  
  
He looked at the bamboo wall that separated the women's from the men's area of the hot pool. His grin had "trouble" written all over it; after all, he'd only promised not to mess with the utensils.  
  
He rose and grabbed a towel, walking out while wrapping the towel around his body hanging from the chest, in the fashion of a female. He invoked the gifts of the Deer-spirits and walked right in. Nobody paid any attention to him, nobody gave him a second glance. He just blended in by the illusory powers of the kitsune, and everyone thought he was just a woman taking a bath. He stepped into the water, admiring the naked bodies around him, and settled on a corner of the pool, a silly grin on his face.  
  
A grin that disappeared completely when he spotted what he had really come to look. Hikari.  
  
Immersed in the nurturing waters of the Shinma bath house, she had lost the pallor of death that hung about her earlier. She had absorbed Yang Chi, and it gave her flesh the rosy color of life. He gulped, unable to take his eyes from her. She was perfect.  
  
He forced himself to remain in that corner, hidden and unnoticed. He also forced himself to remember she was undead. But his heart pulsed faster when at one point she rose from the water to take a cup of sake offered by the house's attendants. He closed his eyes, but the glitter of the water dripping from her skin remained with him, and reminded him of her soft voice and luminous smile when she had tried to calm his rage.  
  
"She is dead." He told himself. "You saw the monster she turned into. You've -seen- her Demon."  
  
"Be careful, Silent-Chuckling-Wind." Kim materialized next to him, also unnoticed by the rest of her clients. She glared at him. "I should have extracted you the promise not to cross to this side; I was careless."  
  
"Yes." Kaze was grateful for the distraction. He and Kim had shared a bed once, so her glamour body didn't impress him so much this time. His fickleness and her fluidity helped them to remain friends.  
  
"She's from Yomi; nothing good will come. Leave her be."  
  
"There is a kind soul battling the demon." He answered. "You'd have to be there to see it."  
  
"Maybe." Kim nodded, only the part of her body out of the water being material. "I trust your wisdom, but do heed my warning."  
  
"You have my thanks for your concern." Kaze talked to the dissipating form of the Shinma, then resumed his quiet admiration.  
  
Hikari enjoyed herself quietly, letting the magical energies flood her body and soak into her every pore. For long moments she just sat back in the water, eyes closed, her head resting lightly on the towel that should really conceal her body at least a little. But as all Thrashing Dragons, she liked to shock and with the energies of life returning to her her true nature also returned and after a few moments in the water she had undone the towel and placed it behind her as a pillow. She enjoyed the rather shocked glances from the other women, shocked paired with envy and jealousy, admiration and even attraction.   
  
Quietly, she thanked the keeper of this place to have let her in and she also thanked Kaze for trusting her enough to vow for her.   
  
Another piece adding to the puzzle in her mind. Of course, she had the nagging thought of the fox sitting somewhere spying at her even now, but to her surprise and slight amusement it didn't disturb her at all. She almost wanted the fox to wander in here and lay eyes on her body and to watch the reaction on his features, in his eyes.   
  
She wondered what the reactions would be. He was a living being and she knew from experience that all living beings had difficulties controlling themselves when encountering this beautiful femme fatale. Even Hengeyokai, knowing what she was, had difficulties turning their gaze away from her and none of the supernatural beings had yet seen her completely naked.   
  
A light, playful smile tugged at her lips and made her features, if possible, even more angelic.  
  
The Demon in Angel's clothing...  
  
She shook her head lightly and reopened her eyes gazing around the bath, looking at the women present. As rare as her beauty was, even moreso was her attitude towards it. Most others with a comparable appearance she had met, had always had a high-and-mighty attitude, a ego, bolstered by their appearance.   
  
Not so Hikari...  
  
She still admired the beauty of others where she could, maybe due to the fact that she thought most mortals more beautiful than herself for the life in the flesh was theirs and not stolen like her own.   
  
But at the moment, she didn't think about such things. Instead, she only enjoyed these moments of peace, granted by the bath. Even the demon had withdrawn to a comfortable silence, not having any possibility to break her control in this scenery of peace and life.   
  
Her thoughts wandered to the owner of the place, the woman they had encountered at the entrance. Closing her eyes a moment, she activated her chi-sight to look around the room with a little more detail and marvelled at the source of Yang this bath presented.   
  
And then her eyes settled on the disguised Kaze.   
  
She noticed the flicker of magic around the figure she had initially thought to be simply another woman.   
  
A playful grin came to her lips again and her eyes sparkled softly.  
  
She would have bet all her years of existance that this was the Kitsune. She knew that the Kitsune had powerful illusionary and trickster magic, enabling them to sneak into almost all kinds of places and since the keeper of the place had only forbidden him to mess with utilities, she doubted the Kitsune would have passed the chance to steal away into the women's bath if he had a way to do it.  
  
True to her nature, her playful mind surfaced and she decided to give the Kitsune another thing to think about.   
  
She slowly rose out of the water. When she had reached for the cup of Sake earlier, she had still been clothed in the small towel, but now her body was completely exposed to view, every inch of creamy white skin, soft dribbles of the clear water running over the perfect, slightly darker nipples and between her small but firm breasts.   
  
Her black hair, though short was plastered to her head in a very, very cute way and her lips had retained the full color of beautiful crimson.  
  
When she crossed her legs to sit at the edge of the pool, her gaze returned to the shapeshifter, a sort of friend to her, she thought.   
  
Her eyes twinkled as her lips formed the words. "Well? Like it?"  
  
Kaze almost destroys the illusion by laughing loudly; the trick to this magic was remaining still and unnoticed, but Hikari had seen through his disguise and if he answered, he'd reveal himself to a horde of angry women.  
  
So he sunk below the waters, and gave her a thumbs up that slowly sank too.  
  
When he exited the women's area, he was invisible.  
  
Minutes later, other men were surprised at the quantity of cold water Kaze was pouring on himself.  
  
---  
  
Hikari left the women's area with a sense of satisfaction, her kimono had been washed and dried, and was ready when she left the pool. She'd copied the style of chinese dresses and her kimono sported twin slits starting at the hips to show off her legs when she walked, and she took special care to keep the upper part unsecured, so it shifted and folded suggestively. She'd never felt better in a long time.  
  
She couldn't help but smile crookedly when she met with Kaze at the entrance. Apparently, the owner of the bathhouse was berating him for something, but the nymph shut up as soon as Hikari walked within earshot.  
  
"You have my gratitude for letting me enjoy your pools." Hikari bowed lightly.  
  
"Well, don't expect to be let in again." The chinese shen frowned again. "You'll have to earn your right to return; the eyes of Heaven are everywhere, I will know when you're worthy."  
  
Kim's features softened a little. "You have a good start with this lout vouching for you, but don't start getting any ideas."  
  
Hikari bowed again, and was greeted in return.  
  
"Again, my thanks."  
  
"May the August Personage of Jade help you fight your demon." The nymph answered.  
  
So they walked out of the house, and again into the preternatural garden that now seemed more alive, or maybe it was that Hikari felt replenished that she finally noticed. They walked slowly and in silence, enjoying the serenity of the garden.  
  
"We are taking more time to get out." Hikari noted the road was more winding and twisting than when they had entered.  
  
"Are you in a hurry?" He smiled. "The garden changes for every client; it's not a dragon nest, but the spirits here are commited to their task: bringing serenity. That's why every shen who knows of it comes, and that's why the Shinma restrict access. It's one of Heaven's gifts to humans."  
  
Hikari enjoyed the soft whisper of night insects. "Thank you." She whispered.  
  
"You look so much prettier when you're content." He chuckled.  
  
"Oh, do I?" She smiled and leant her back against a bridge's railing, separating the chest flaps of her kimono.  
  
The kitsune laughed and leant opposite her, on the other side of the bridge.  
  
"You almost got me there." He said nonchalantly.   
  
"Then I'll have to make a better effort next time." The kuei-jin teased.  
  
"Indeed." The kitsune jumped effortlessly and crouched on the railing, with great balance. "You're a beautiful Yang creature, Kyusenko-dono. I am pleased to have met you."  
  
"Don't be so sure about that." Hikari's tease had a hint of tragedy to it; part of it was that for the first time, she felt flattered by such a comment.  
  
"Leave that to my own fox-judgement." He stood on the railing, getting a much better view of Hikari's cleavage. He looked up at the sky, sorting out his intentions towards this creature of the night. He wasn't an astrologer, so anything the stars might be trying to tell him was falling on deaf ears.  
  
He finally jumped down, close to her. "Come one; let's go downtown."  
  
"What for?"  
  
"People-watching is much more enjoyable with a full belly and some sake at your side." He winked. "Besides, you intrigue me, and the night is young."  
  
"Are you always so direct?" Hikari straighened, entering his personal space and taking in fully the light of his eyes and the warmth of his demeanor.  
  
"As much as I'm always in a good mood."  
  
---  
  
The drinking parlor was almost fool, and it had taken a bribe for them to get a good booth that kept them out of view, but allowed them a good look at the other patrons and also to the street outside.  
  
"See that guy." Kaze pointed at a man laughing and pawing a concubine. "He works in the government, petty official. No life beyond these walls and those of his office.  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"I robbed him blind once. Some trade papers were copied while he was in here." He chuckled. "I never showed up for our 'date'."  
  
"Excuse me?" Hikari blinked.  
  
"You see him with that woman 'cause he's with his coworkers, but he's more into pretty young men."  
  
Hikari chuckled at the false coyness he assumed. For a night, she was alive; this shapeshifter was helping her achieve the ambition and vice of all Thrashing Dragons. His laughter feeding hers, his interest awakening hers, his apparently open trust reaching deeper than a thousand masterful deceptions.  
  
Kaze kept himself busy with his anecdotes; as a Kitsune, he had many, or he wouldn't have advanced to be a Three-Tails to the eyes of heaven. And his mouth gave his brain some time to think and evaluate his situation. It was still hard to believe that the winged and clawed monster that splattered the goblin spider across the room at Nakamura's mansion was this beautiful girl. Only her haunted eyes gave a clue about the shadow hovering around her soul.  
  
And he discovered he enjoyed bringing a smile to her lips. The kitsune were the youngest children of Gaia, and part of their role was to spread the enjoyment of that youth to others; they weren't Gaia's laughter like the fabled Nu-Isha, but many enjoyed such a role. Kaze, despite being a warrior, was one of them.  
  
And despite the excellent stamina of all hengeyokai, the sake was strong, and it was going to his head, enough not to realize what his hand was doing until it was too late, and the kitsune surprised himself leaning towards Hikari and pushing a lock of hair out of her face.  
  
Hikari was stunned as well; she'd been looking at another man whom they were speculating about, and almost jumped back when she felt the warm proximity of Kaze's hand, but she didn't move, and let the fox run a finger around her face as he pushed her ruffled hair aside.  
  
"Why?" She asked finally after a long pause in which both shen looked at each other.  
  
"Just because." He answered, grinning and downing another cup of alcohol. "Now, there was a time when I..."  
  
His words became a blur in Hikari's mind; she was just drinking on the emotion behind the voice.  
  
Hikari listened, but not to the words of the Kitsune in front of her. She listened to the emotions and also tried to figure out what was happening between the two of them.   
  
Something had creapt up between the two, especially the almost touch of Kaze earlier, the nearness of his skin when he had brushed that lock away.  
  
Her gaze fixed on his eyes and never strayed, soaking up what he emitted, bathing in his emotions and pondering if and how to return them. Should she return his advancements?   
  
She couldn't!  
  
She was a chi-sucker, a demon, almost his natural enemy, yet here they were, drinking together as though they were good friends or maybe even more.  
  
Friends?  
  
When was the last time she could have called someone friend?  
  
Was Kaze a friend?  
  
She didn't know, couldn't point her finger at the right answer. The two facets of her soul raged to reach a different conclusion, but for the moment, she was more human than beast. And for the moment, she was too much alive to listen to the demon's suggestions.  
  
As Kaze talked, she smiled still, the Kitsune's words bringing happiness to her dead soul, his presence enlighting her softly.  
  
She didn't know how things could have grown so fast, developed so easily. She didn't even know why she was here, accepting the invitation.   
  
Though deep down inside she knew.   
  
She craved for life and the Kitsune presented her that. His words, his gestures and movements radiated his energy and she wanted to immerse herself with it.   
  
And that also was a point the demon inside her was putting his clawed finger on.   
  
Immerse herself with his energy...  
  
Take a light sap from his chi...  
  
She didn't have to kill him...just taste a few drops of his wonderful essence.   
  
NO!  
  
She shivered inside, though outwardly she had herself perfectly under control. Just the eyes betrayed her inner battle.   
  
Kaze saw the battle and could second-guess what the battle was about. He knew on what Kuei-jin lived and he also knew that shapeshifter essence was doubly so good for them.  
  
And still he didn't turn away from her...  
  
Why?  
  
Here they sat, over 400 years of experience in life and unlife meeting and both of them couldn't even find the answer as to why they liked each other and why they were here, together.   
  
Hikari for herself fought the idea of sapping from the Kitsune violently. She didn't want to betray the trust he placed in her, not after all he'd done for her. His kindness and his entire way of behaving appealed to her, to her human side.   
  
And she wanted that human side to prevail...  
  
But ultimately, could she refuse if he offered?  
  
---  
  
Kaze was caught in the storm behind those pretty eyes. She was smiling, and that was a refreshing change from the mask of rage back in the mansion, and even the teasing and seductive smile at the bath house. She looked like a teenager with the body of a goddess.  
  
In the kitsune's mind, several bells were warning loudly. This has happened before, they said. You've gotten out unscathed until now, and these one has sharp claws.  
  
Yet the foggy haze of the sake helped him silence the alarms. He was a creature of passion and instint, as most of the shapeshifters were, and both were pushing him towards the exquisite vision seating across him. His eyes saw the haunted woman who wanted to be alive, yet couldn't. Mighty as she was, she lived in fear of herself.  
  
He'd met few Kuei-jin, and all of them reveled in their undead state. This one revered life.  
  
"Kyusenko-dono..." he broke one of the silences that had been cropping up more frequently now.  
  
"Hikari..." She whispered. "Call me Hikari."  
  
He nodded with a smile.  
  
"Light..." He traced the meaning of her name in the air. Writing was an important part of kitsune magic, and maybe the kuei-jin didn't realize it, but tracing the kanji in the space between them infused her image with the power of her name, to Kaze's eyes.  
  
"And you?" She asked.  
  
"Wind." He traced his name. "Wind of the Black Forest".  
  
Hikari chuckled with the irony that she, a creature of darkness, should be named after the light, and he, a creature of vibrant life, would have such an ominous name.  
  
"How did the bath house owner call you?"  
  
"Silent-Chuckling-Wind". He honored his tribename by chuckling. "It's how I'm known among my people. It's a pretty formal thing; just call me Kaze-kun."  
  
"Kaze..." She leaned forward, showing a generous amount of flesh that this time was truly unintentional. "You barely know me... you've seen what I am and what I can do, yet I've never... received such kindness."  
  
The undead girl flinched when he took her hands. He made a weak attempt to wrest them free, but he held her fast. He raised her hands to her eye level, and gently opened one and showed them her own fingers.  
  
"When you see your hands... what do you see?" He asked.  
  
"Blood." She cast her gaze down, but he pushed her chin up with his other hand.  
  
"I see beyond these hands and into your eyes."  
  
Hikari wasn't sure if his face, between her fingers, was blurry because she was focusing on her hand, or because she had remembered how to cry.  
  
"I believe..." He folded her fingers, enclosing her small, deadly hand within his own. "That the girl I saw at the machinery room is deserving of kindness, she needs the help to fight against the demon I saw in the concubine's room, and I'm willing to help her."  
  
Hikari felt her P'o whisper; 'let me speak', it said; 'I can have him dancing in our hand, and his precious essence can be ours.' She shook her head involuntarily, and snatched her hand from Kaze's hold.  
  
"Aw, come on; I may not match your beauty, but I'm not -that- ugly!"  
  
The sheer absurdity of his comment made Hikari pause, the voice of the demon quieted also. She found herself smiling. She was hungry, but not in the normal sense of the undead; she yearned for his energy, not born from Chi, but from an even higher recess in his soul.  
  
"Hikari... I know what you want... only the August Personage of Jade may grant that, but I can offer you a taste."  
  
"Ka-Kaze... you don't know what you're offering..."  
  
"And you don't understand my offer." He pointed in mock accusation. "Walk with me; I live in a world where the spirits of life talk and answer to your prayers. I move with the flows of Yang, even if my breed is comfortable with Yin. I move in shadows, but my missions are for the name of light."  
  
"I want you to be my companion." He finished.  
  
The Kuei-jin could see the fox's cheeks reddened from the alcohol, a state she was hard pressed to emulate, even when aspected to Yang. Maybe it was that that compelled him to ask her that.  
  
He saw her hesitation and smiled mischievously. "Breathe of my breath."  
  
"I shouldn't..." She said.  
  
"Don't breathe of my life-essence, but of the spirit energy within me." He leaned closer to her. "You can drink Yin Chi and you can drink Yang Chi, but in this you will taste that which fuels the chosen of the Emerald Mother, and understand what I'm asking you to help me protect."  
  
Hikari succumbed, the temptation, her craving, the offer and his invitation were too much for her. She closed in, her mouth approaching his. She wouldn't drink his blood, for that wasn't what he had offered, so she took a sharp intake of breath. Was it stealing to take what was freely offered?  
  
It was like the song of birds in the deep forest, like the wind brushing her hair and the sun caressing her face. Lying in the middle of a meadow, feeling the power of thunder in an overcast sky, and knowing how each of those parts of nature were alive, and welcomed her. All that and none was the taste of the kitsune's magic.  
  
Kaze felt his Gnosis be taken, its Yang-aspected energy bubbling out of him through his mouth and into hers. The kitsune are children of passion, and when that passion wakes, it simmers. Kaze felt the frenzy approach, the need to run for no good reason, but he fought it, he had offered his spiritual strength, right? But the departure of his Yang was awakening all his visceral reactions in its passing, sending the few scraps of reason he listened to to the five directions. Anger, joy, fear, love, rage, happyness...it was all happening at the same time.  
  
Hikari stopped herself. She was infinitely grateful to the fox for letting her taste what it was to be alive again, but she hadn't even closed her mouth when Kaze pressed his lips to hers. Still drunk from the sensation of living, she only closed her eyes.  
  
Only when they separated did she understood what had happened. It was always like this when she stole Yang Chi; her victims lost control to their own passions.   
  
Kaze was reeling, he was dizzy beyond drunkenness, the alcohol only a minor contribution to his light-headedness. He stared at Hikari.  
  
"I... apologize." He bowed his head. "I don't know what came over me..." He coughed and cleared his throat; recovering his jesting nature, he winked. "But my offer was not an excuse to taste of your lips; it still stands."  
  
Hikari trembled inside and at this point also outside. The energy of shapeshifters was infusing her very being and more than that, the emotionality and the entire situation played into the picture, creating a mixture of hope, shock, life and death. Everything the two presented and sought after seemed to merge for a moment as the moment stretched into eternity.  
  
His companion...?  
  
Was he serious about this? Did he even know what he was asking, what he was getting himself into. She knew by now that he was clever, intelligent, but he was emotion driven, too and were his words driven by reasoning or by feelings?   
  
She couldn't know and actually, she didn't want to know.  
  
All she currently thought about was that he had indeed asked her. The first living being who wanted to be with her for more than just a night, who wanted more than just her body. He knew what he was gambling towards, but still he wanted her by his side.  
  
"I...." she whispered slowly and this was one of the few moments where she was short of words. How to answer?   
  
Inside she tried to see clearly, tried to organize the turmoil into something she could decide upon, but all she achieved was realizing that for one time, her P'o and her nature wanted the same. She didn't know if that was good.  
  
The Demon had his own reasons to want her to accept, knowing that so many possibilities to deceive and destroy would creep up. Her nature wanted her to accept because it would give her endless possibilities to advance on her path towards her goal.   
  
So could she really refuse?  
  
She knew the answer even before her mind realized the full impact this decision would have on her life.   
  
"I...would be honored...to...be your companion..." she whispered quietly and slowly lifted her gaze and let her eyes pierce his.   
  
It was a magical moment, shared by two supernatural beings. Something grew stronger between them, something invisible, but more powerful than any rope or chain could ever be. Slowly, time lost its meaning for this special moment, the sounds and movements around them seeming to slow down as they lost themselves in the others gaze.   
  
Both knew there was a dark cloud looming over them...  
  
Both knew that their destiny would be to suffer should they really chose this path...  
  
Both didn't care at this moment...  
  
Kaze's head was still feeling as if his brains were suspended in cotton, so he just let his body take over for a while. He smiled warmly and took Hikari's hands. Such public displays of affection were looked down by society, but neither of them were wholly part of it.  
  
Her hands were suffused with life energy, and they felt warm to the touch, so he let his thumbs explore the silky texture of her skin.  
  
"My thanks..." He said, simply.  
  
Hikari's reflex was to withdraw from the touch, but she surpressed this reflex and instead let him do what he wished with her hands. The skin was next to perfect, as was everything on this undead beauty and she watched Kaze with quiet eyes that were so full of turmoil.  
  
And of course, some mischief twinkled there...  
  
"What? That's all? I agree to become your companion and I get a simple 'My thanks?'" she said with a quiet, light voice and her fingers suddenly squeezed his.   
  
Kaze laughed.  
  
"Sorry; that's more or less what my brain can handle at the moment." He grinned, and looked down at the smooth alabaster he was holding. Again, he raised her hands so they both leant closer to the center of the table, and to each other.  
  
He stared at her eyes; the fox had stared at many eyes, reading what he could for his own purposes, but this time he was just looking serenely at the troubled depths of Hikari's.  
  
"Don't..." she whispered, averting her eyes slowly, though not leaning away from him. "Don't look into my eyes. You...you can see what I really am in there...and I can see it mirrored in your eyes..."  
  
Why? Why was she so weak at the moment? She felt almost like crying, something she hadn't done for many...many years, something she had thought impossible to happen again.  
  
But the feeling was there.  
  
She was afraid of rejection. Because if he rejected one part, he'd sooner or later grow tired of just half a girl, too, no?  
  
Kaze was awash with a sensation he hadn't felt in almost a century: tenderness. He knew she was old, her eyes didn't hide from him her real age, yet she was acting like the young girl she looked like.  
  
He cocked his head and twisted it in an odd angle to follow her fleeing gaze.  
  
"Hikari... I already know what you are." He whispered, his neck leaning sideways. "I may be a little drunk, but do you think I'd ask what I did without full knowledge of what I was getting into...?" He straightened and blinked. "Don't answer; we foxes have a bad reputation for doing exactly that..."  
  
Hikari shifted a bit but still didn't look up. She looked much like a little girl who knew she had done something wrong and was ashamed of admitting it, but she wasn't a little girl.  
  
She was a well over 200 year old, supernatural being with powers beyond human's imagination. Even her words could be lethal and here she sat, ashamed, sad and hopeful at the same time.   
  
"But do you realize what it means for us?" she whispered quietly. "I...I mean you...you deserve someone who can return your appreciation and your feelings, someone who can give you everything you want as your companion."  
  
He took his hand from hers and searched inside his robes, pulling out a sheet of snow-white paper. He began folding, winking at her from time to time, until he presented her with an origami dragon; it's serpentine form twisting and shifting as he pulled it from its extremes.  
  
He gave it to her, smiling all the way.  
  
She gazed at the dragon quietly and didn't do anything for a long while. Her eyes took in the form of the dragon, the milky white paper and the beast, the two worlds colliding.   
  
Then slowly, she reached forward and took it.  
  
Again, she looked up to Kaze and her eyes mirrored her words clearly.   
  
A simple, yet not so simple question.  
  
"Why...?"  
  
"Because you need it." He answered. "If you consider yourself such trouble, then remember that foxes are attracted to trouble."  
  
He poured more sake into both their cups.  
  
"I can give you ten thousand explanations, one for each creature and thing under Heaven, and all of them would sound hollow because your heart will hear them that way." He shrugged and took a sip. "I can't explain it as much as I can quote the entire Laws of Heaven and how many of them I've broken."  
  
He smiled wider still, lost into the lost expression in HIkari's face. "You speak of finding someone who can give me everything I want... that is never the case; you give and take, hoping that what you give will please the other, and what you take is freely given. There are no rules."  
  
He leaned closer to her while he spoke, whispering the last word milimeters from her lips.  
  
Hikari inhaled the scent of the shapeshifter in front of her and took in his features silently, not moving an inch as he talked.   
  
When he was so close to her, she felt something...  
  
Something she hadn't felt before when around Hengeyokai and she realized it was trust...  
  
"No rules..." she whispered quietly, her words coming slow and silent.  
  
"But what if I hurt you...I...don't want to hurt you..." she said, still not decided, still struggling to find the right way, the correct path.   
  
"Unless you kill me, I will always recover." He answered, also with his eyes, not moving either and speaking in a soft murmur. "Shed your worries about the future and the past, for it is today that you're here, and today that you must choose a path."  
  
Kaze's own couple of centuries of life were an accumulation of experiences. He wouldn't tell Hikari yet, but he'd been married twice, and some of his descendants still toiled the land or walked the streets of some city or another. He knew about the risks of tying two destinies together, and he had no regrets; he'd do it again.  
  
But this time he'd do it with a Kuei-jin. An immortal Demon, forever bound to live with the torment of two souls, of a Demon trying to gain control.   
  
It was a risky gamble and Hikari knew it, but she couldn't deny the feelings inside her and the happiness she felt when thinking about the possibility of being his companion. She couldn't deny that it was a way to advance on her own path towards being more human than monster.  
  
And she couldn't deny that it would give the Demon inside her millions of possibilities to act and hurt Kaze.   
  
But still...  
  
She closed her eyes and thus denied Kaze the insight into her thoughts.   
  
But she answered him.  
  
She leaned a little bit more forward and that was enough to let their lips meet.  
  
The second time this evening, but this time it was a soft, tender kiss from lips of unnatural sweetness and purity, a kiss laden with centuries of longing and desire. All placed into the tenderness of one, small kiss.  
  
The kitsune played with a lock of her hair while the kiss lasted, and let his fingers run across her face when they both straightened. A silence fell between them, but it was a comfortable one, the kind that is not an absence of sound but rather just another form of expression. Kaze's eternal smile was now one full of understanding and contentment. He said nothing, letting his hand speak about the centuries he was willing to spend guiding her soul towards a higher state.  
  
Slowly, she let the silence pass and a soft smile tugged at her features as she watched him and the implications of his gestures and words sunk in deeply, creating a warmth inside her she had thought forgotten.  
  
Her eyes glittered lightly in the pale light and she was content for the moment. Happy to have made this decision. Happy to be here, with Kaze.   
  
And happy to still be in this world for maybe the first time. 


	4. Second Scroll: Running Like Clockwork

WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC  
  
SECOND SCROLL  
  
RUNNING LIKE CLOCKWORK  
  
The busy capital city of Kyoto bustled day and night. At the center of Japan, it received the traffic of all the corners of the empire, and was also the center from which all the innovations of the Meiji emperors spread to the rest of their domains. It was a strange city, where ronin mage-swordsmen tested their skills agains the machines of immigrant chinese artificers.  
  
The gaslight lamps that dotted the streets sported dragons at their top, their metal jaws holding the orbs from which the light emanated, banishing the darkness while the sun rested from its task of doing so.  
  
In one of the few dark alleys, a young girl leaned against a wall; her kimono slit in imitation of chinese fashion, and showing an indiscriminate amoung of perfect skin. Her eyes were hunting, however. She watched with disdain the few passerbys that eyed her with appreciation.  
  
"Lookee here..." A weasel-looking man approached her. He didn't look like a samurai, not even a ronin, but he wore an ornate scabbard on his side. Hikari Kyusenko didn't care much for the laws of the land, but the artwork was the kind only rich wizard-warriors could afford, or rightfully use. The man drew the blade, and Hikari's senses felt the crackling of magical energy as it did so. However, its wielder was numb to it; he probably stole it after killing its true owner.  
  
"Leave." She ordered succintly; she didn't have time for this.  
  
"You think you can work the streets in my boss' area?"  
  
The kuei-jin rolled her eyes. She knew it'd be a bad idea to stand like this, like a brothel-less prostitute; but Kaze said it was the perfect bait for their target. Would this be the man they were looking for?  
  
"Don't try my patience, little man..." She summoned the goblin flame to her, and her eyes and mouth began burning with greenish fire.  
  
"A... a..." The man peeled his eyes, and would have screamed if the shadows hadn't come alive and put a knife to his throat.  
  
"Speak and you die, make a sound and you die, speak of this to anyone, and you die. Understood?" The shadow spoke. The man nodded and hastily make his exit when the blade stopped touching his skin.  
  
"I told you this was a bad idea." Hikari extinguished her fire.  
  
"Yes, but it's the better option." Kaze removed his black mask and revealed his fox head; he preferred to be in action in his natural form. "Besides; I like to see the light play upon your figure."  
  
"I'm sure you do." She smiled with irony. It had been almost a month since she had accepted being his companion, and he had never stopped blanketing her with good-natured compliments.  
  
"You look... succulent." He winked. "That's why I'm sure our man will stop long enough for us to catch him."  
  
Hikari was almost shamed when the kitsune revealed to her the vast network of informants under his command, showing what can be done with two centuries well-employed interacting with people. It was this network, fed with the information gleaned by other hengeyokai, that the man they were hunting tonight would lead them in the path of the one who had pulled on Nakamura's strings.  
  
"Kaze... -everyone- is stopping to look at me..."  
  
"Ah... but this one will stop with a clinical eye; he builds clockworks dolls, and you make a perfect model. He could be chinese or Westerner, so keep your eyes open. And be careful, we don't know what he can do." He leaned close to her, almost touching his cold and wet nose to hers. His fox-face was very expressive, and she had learned to recognize the gestures in a snout as well as on human lips. His eyes remained the same, however.  
  
He took a lick of her nose and jumped back before she could respond with anything, he shifted into his fox form and hid again, making absolutely no noise.  
  
She resumed her vigilance. Her supernatural senses picked up a strange noise... one like she had heard when talking to the fake Nakamura in that machinery room; whirring, clicking... on the end of the street came three figures; she couldn't make their features in this light and distance, but the one in the middle, the shortest, should be the one they were looking for, if his companions or bodyguards were what she feared they were.  
  
Hikari gazed at the trio approaching and tried to make out their features, but in the end it really wasn't that important. From the presence of the two machines, she knew this was the man Kaze and her had been looking for.   
  
A moment, she simply leaned back against the wall, enjoying the thought about Kaze, enjoying the fact that she was now his companion and enjoying the prospect of working with him. A while ago, she wouldn't have thought it possible to connect so quickly to a person, least of all a Hengeyokai, but here she was, fighting alongside him and getting deep into trouble with him.   
  
The two bodyguards were covered by long westerner coats, hiding their metal skin and muffling their clocwork muscles, but their stiff movements told them off; the clothing was just a nod to propriety.  
  
As Kaze had predicted, the man stopped to look at her, but his gaze wasn't full of lust or envy, like other people's. Hikari felt... scanned.  
  
The little fox hiding behind a post studied the new arrivals in return. This would be hard if the man resisted. He'd hoped to nab an unprepared Chin'ta, just to ask whom he had built the mechanical Nakamura for, but with the two automatons behind him, he would surely resist, and things would surely get ugly. He trusted Hikari to fish out as much as she could before they had to engage the machines.  
  
"Interested?" Hikari said with a quiet, lusty voice, opening her eyes and gazing at the people in front of her.   
  
She played her part as one of the prostitutes trying to get people to come with her for some fun and for some money for her.  
  
A prostitute wouldn't be able to tell that she was looking at two machines which could tear apart the wall against which she was leaning in no time.   
  
So she acted as if she didn't notice, too and tried to seduce all three of them instead.   
  
For now.  
  
"I may, I may..." The small man said, his japanese thick with chinese accent. "Would you fulfill some, ah... excentricities?"  
  
Some would describe the predatory smile the man gave her as a 'fox-smile', but she had seen the real thing, and the man's pathetic attempt at congratiation had nothing on the rich and honest laughter of the kitsune.  
  
She raised a brow and inclined her head, much like a real prostitute would. She knew how they behaved, since she had often enough posed as one. It was easy to hunt that way.   
  
"Excentricities? What kind?" she asked with a low, very emotional voice.  
  
She knew that her seducing him like that wouldn't have much effect, but she wanted to play her part right so he didn't blow her cover.  
  
"You'd be paid handsomely... such a perfect body..." He looked her up and down. "Enough for you to live in luxury for years."  
  
From his hideout, Kaze suppressed a growl. He only wanted information, but if his suspicions were right, he and Hikari might have to dispense Gaia's justice again. Out of precaution, he shifted his gaze to the contemplation of magic. The machines readiated strongly, running their small engines with the mystical power-source that allowed the Chinese mechanicals to compete against the head-start the more mundanely-minded Westerners had on machine building.  
  
Again, Hikari inclined her head and looked at the strange man quietly, not seeming to notice the two others anymore. SHe put a slight gleam in her eyes when he spoke of riches, since that was the real reason why most of the prostitutes worked. For money.  
  
"I still need to ask. What kind of excenticities." She asked again, though putting a slight bit of uncertainity into her voice.   
  
The man chuckled. "Why such apprehension, my dear?" He fished inside his jacket and brought out a string of gold coins. "If you're so afraid, you'll be missing this and more... just play to be my doll for tonight..."  
  
Kaze's ear twitched. The cursed mage was using magic on her! It was the magic of words and currency, but he could feel the flows of the Tapestry conform to his wishes, trying to tie Hikari's mind into his promise of riches. Damn the Namebreakers! He tensed, ready to jump and gut the man if he saw the girl he had just commited his life to was in danger she couldn't handle by herself.  
  
Hikari closed her eyes a moment and decided that they wouldn't be able to get to the information they wanted without getting into a mess. She also decided that this mess was NOT going to be her playing that man's doll!  
  
Using her own willpower, she resisted the man's magic and instead activated her own: that of the Black Wind. Accelerated beyond any normal human's comprehension, she completed a strike at the empty air towards the first of the machines and used her Distant Death Kata. At almost the same moment, the second machine raised his arms.  
  
Hikari's senses seemed to slow down time, the bodies of the machines and the man acting as though they were stuck in a slow-forward phase. Just after she had completed her strike, she already whirled around, barely avoiding the two fists of the second automaton which he had shot in her direction.  
  
The kitsune had barely enough time to act himself; opening the furnace of rage Luna granted him, he also moved as lightning, shifting to his half-fox form, aiming to tackle the arm that was aiming towards Hikari.  
  
The little man jumped back with a scream, shouting something in chinese.  
  
The first machine bulged under Hikari's intangible strike, sounding like a broken bell.  
  
As time slowed down in her perception, she saw Kaze racing from the shadows and to her help. She still whirled out of the way of the attacks of the second machine, she activated her Storm Shintai powers, calling forth sizzling lightning on her hands and aimed for a full contact strike at the first machine now, using her incredible speed and agility as an advantage.  
  
Something whistled next to Hikari, a metal fist flew from the second metal man's arm, connected by a chain. She closed in on the first, ready to discharge the fury of the storms on it. But then she was enveloped in a cloud of searing steam. There was no way to dodge it this close to it's source.  
  
Kaze saw the steam, and saw the second automaton close; they were inhumanly fast, but so where Hikari and himself. Leaping gracefully over the first attacker with a prayer on his lips for Hikari's safety, he landed squarely on the sholders of the second clockwork man.  
  
The chinese man was producing something from his pocket, but kitsune and kuei-jin were much too busy at the moment to notice.  
  
Instinctively, she ducked, but used her momentum forward to complete the movement towards the first machine.  
  
With her superhuman strength, she planted her feet on the ground and propelled herself forward towards the machine, her fist extended forward, aiming for the direction she knew th machine to be using her chi-senses to direct her instead of her eyes.  
  
She ignored the burning pain the steam inflicted on her skin, and felt her fist impact, crackling with lightning.  
  
Another chained fist flew, but this time towards Kaze. The fox bent back in time and used the momentum back to wedge his short sword between the automaton's head and shoulders.  
  
Hikari's opponent made a grab for her, but fast as it was, he couldn't catch her ghostly form.  
  
She dodged around his advance and whirled again, this time sending her foot flying towards her opponent while twisting.  
  
She was immersed in the fight and didn't pay much attention to anything else.   
  
But for the first time in combat, she caught herself sending a glance to Kaze now and then, making sure he could handle himself.   
  
The fox was making do; his sword wasn't much use so he let himself drop back with a flip, weaving his body in nearly impossible ways to evade the machine's attack.   
  
But they had forgotten the chinese man...  
  
"Use lightning against the Lightning People?" He said, hitting a switch in the small metal box he had taken out. The essence of creation, the Chi that fed Hikari's body and Kaze's spirit, suddenly exploded, arcs of supernatural lightning leaping between the two automatons and extending to hit the two shen time and again.  
  
Hikari cried out in horror and got thrown backwards by the force of lightning, but she snarled, trying to get to her feet again.  
  
The onslaught continued and the P'o in her cried for release as the burning hatred seethed and was fueled by her pain.   
  
But she wouldn't let it have control over herself, not just this easily.   
  
And she had a way of getting out of this mess.  
  
"Never...mess...with your superior...." she uttered beneath her breath and suddenly let her voice reach such unbelievable heights it was all but painful, enacting the Cry of Blood on the little chinese man. The sound was so loud, that everyone in the near vicintiy would not go temprorarily unharmed and the chinese got the full attention of her shout of rage and power.  
  
The man never stood a chance. While able to twist the flowing of Creation to his whim, he was still a mortal man caught unprepared. The monster inside Hikari saw how blood began to flow from the chinese's ears, nostrils and even his eyes. He fell with a sickening thud, his innards smashed into pulp inside his skin by the force of Hikari's demonic cry.  
  
But behind her, another fell victim. Kaze hadn't had time to ask the spirits to grant him the power of regeneration, as the fox-changers didn't share that power with the rest of their Hengeyokai kin except in their warriors' magic. Weakened as he was by the magical lighning, he felt his vision blur as Hikari's once sweet voice pressed on his head like a vise.  
  
Between them, the metal men were unaffected.  
  
Hikari recovered and got up, not yet having noticed that Kaze had fallen to her demonic cry as well.   
  
She believed that all shapeshifters had healing powers and thus thought Kaze could manage and her concentration refocussed on the two metal-men.   
  
The demon inside her revelled in the bloodshed and took control of her more and more. But she was still able to focus her thoughts and she channeled the flow of chi inside her body to her hands, creating the Goblin sword in her hands infusing it with Yang energy and then leapt at the two metal creatures.  
  
The machines moved more sluggishly, now unguided by the will of their creator but still able to work on their own. Hikari had a hard time penetrating the metal casings, but now dodging their attacks was like child's play, even unaugmented by the Black Wind. The demon had begun to get bored when whatever had been powering the things finally exhausted, and they slumped in their place, battered and broken in some part, but still in good condition. They just were now empty caskets.  
  
She stood over her work in satisfaction and turned around, only now realizing that Kaze hadn't joined in the last part of the fight... and saw him sprawled on the ground, trickles of blood coming out from his ears, and badly burned where the Artificer's lightning had struck.  
  
The rage fell from her as if it had never been there. The sword vanished from her hand and the realization came.  
  
"No..." she whispered.   
  
She saw the blood and where it leaked from and instinctively knew what had happened. She stumbled over the debris from the fight and to Kaze's side, shaking her head.   
  
"No!" she murmured. "You are a shapeshifter, you can regenarate...you shouldn't...no!" she whispered.   
  
A sudden grief tore at her heart as she looked down to the fox-warrior.   
  
With shaking hands, she reached for her companion and tried to feel for life, too disturbed to even realizs she could simply check by using her chi-sight.   
  
His heart was beating still, faintly but surely, turning him around, she saw the bloody trickles coming from his mouth, nose and eyes too. He was breathing, but he wasn't moving, and the wounds didn't show any sign of supernatural healing.  
  
"Why... why are you not healing?" she whispered, totally stricken by what she had done.   
  
If he had been a Kuei-jin, she could have given him her blood, but she didn't dare to use any of her powers on him.   
  
She had no idea what to do. Feeling the sadness and grief, she ripped her clothing apart, using what little she knew of first aid to bandage the wounds the lightning had created.  
  
She gazed down at his unmoving form and shivered violently, leaning down and cradling his form to herself.   
  
"No...no..."  
  
As she wrapped his body in her desperate attempts to save him, little lights began to glow around her, dancing as if suspended by invisible wires. Fireflies... the little insects some mortals believe to be the souls of the departed...  
  
And then she realized what she had to do.   
  
With a jolt, she sat up and picked up the form of the unmoving Kitsune.  
  
They were quite a sight as she started to hurry along the streets. A beautiful woman with halfway ripped clothing carrying a young man in her arms, hurrying through the streets.   
  
She couldn't run out of breath and she didn't feel tired, she never did and thus carried Kaze with ease through the streets, heading for the bath house she knew could infuse him with new energy and heal him again.   
  
But she WAS drained of strength. The bond between them had gotten so strong that his hurt was her hurt in mind and she felt like she was about to lose a part of herself as she stumbled through the streets and at last came to the gates of the bath house.   
  
She felt like crying out of desperation when she was forced to stop dead just past the outer gate; she couldn't take another step, it was as if her mind just couldn't control her body when it came to entering the garden. The fireflies caught up with her, some settling on the fox's burned flesh.  
  
She knew she was being watched, and she knew she was being tested.  
  
"Let me in..." she whispered.   
  
"For heavens sake, please let me in. He's dying and it's MY fault!" she said, louder now, trembling. She felt weak all over, unable to hold back the grief.   
  
She tried. She didn't know how shapeshifters metabolism's functioned and didn't know if the Kitsune indeed would die, but she dreaded the thought and it was the only thing he could think of.   
  
The grief and sadness pushed her onwards, trying to struggle past the barrier...  
  
"Please..."  
  
It didn't matter to her anymore what the spirit of the place would do to her when she told her story, told her that she had inflicted this wound.  
  
It didn't matter.  
  
She had to get in...  
  
"You are back." Hikari hadn't noticed when Kim materialized, but the girlish water nymph now stood in front of her, a short distance from where the invisible ward denied the kuei-jin entry. "I told you you'd need to earn your passage. He can't vouch for you this time."  
  
Kim's words were cold as ice, but her eyes reflected the sorrow of ages.  
  
"He can't vouch for me because I did this to him!" she said quietly.   
  
Her voice wasn't controlled, emotions of grief and sorrow flowing through it deeply.   
  
"I am not important...if you can take him in and heal him, that shall be enough...I don't need to get in...just him! Please!!"  
  
"Take him in and heal him, please, I beg of you...I'll do anything..."  
  
The deceiver was quiet, quieted out by the honest feelings she felt flowing through her. The P'o couldn't even start to take onto her as the full impact of true feelings shook her from her core.  
  
The nymph stepped forward and took Kaze from Hikari's arms.  
  
"Stay here." She said. "You will not leave until he can walk out by his own foot. That is the price."  
  
Hikari nodded and stood where she had given Kaze into the care of the spirit of this place. She stood and waited.  
  
Slowly, she sank down to her knees and sat down on the ground, burying her delicate features in her hands.   
  
Waiting...  
  
Hoping...  
  
Praying...  
  
Kim watched the kuei-jin from one of the small ponds in the garden; she stared at her for hours on end, with the patience of one of the bureaucrats of Heaven's Mandate. She wondered, asking herself if she had been fair to exact such a payment onto one of the Fallen, when the desperation in her voice would've been enough to move Kim's heart into removing the wards.  
  
But still... she was a servant of Heaven, in charge of her little part of the Ten Thousand Things, and the kuei-jin had betrayed Heaven once. They'd have to prove worthy of Heaven's favor.   
  
Dawn broke, with neither supernatural female moving from their positions. The first rays of the sun announced a new day over the horizon.  
  
Hikari shivered with fear of what was to come. She had infused her body with Yang at the beginning of the night, but still, the day would spell her doom and she knew it.   
  
She was still exhausted from the fight and she didn't know how long she could withstand the powers of the sun.  
  
The P'o got stronger now, clawing at its cage and wanting to flee from this place, cast the Kitsune to oblivion and never return.   
  
But her Hun soul analyzed the situation completely different.   
  
It had been Kaze who had brought her closer to being alive, to advancing on the path she had chosen. It had been Kaze who had stayed with her even though she was a damned. It was Kaze who had looked beyond the demon and seen the other side of her.   
  
She couldn't leave...  
  
The first rays of sun fell on her perfect skin and where it struck, she felt searing pain reek through her body as the heavenly forces did their work on her undead body, rotting the flesh slowly.   
  
She would survive for an hour or two, she knew, especially with Yang in her body, but it would be pain...  
  
Endless pain...  
  
But she remained and willed herself to be silent...  
  
The nymph stopped herself from jumping out of her hiding place, but she remained dutiful and stood watch as the sun's rays slowly rotted the vampire's skin. She had to wait until the last moment. The August Personage of Jade would not allow for any less time... and Kaze wouldn't forgive her if she waited a second longer.  
  
The sky was cloudless, glowing azure blue as the sun made it's way in its daily travel, and the girl who would have caused the heartbreak of many with just a glance was now a stinking pile of putrescent flesh and bones.  
  
Kim jumped into action, feeling the last drop of Chi drain from Hikari's body. There was only a soft sprinkle of water where the nymph grabbed the decaying living corpse and plunged into the secret depths of the bathhouse's waters.  
  
Hikari felt herself floating in nothingness, aware of her being but of little else. She was alone.  
  
Alone...  
  
Again alone to herself and always, never to end her existance, but never to share it with someone either. She loathed the loneliness...  
  
She had always been alone...  
  
From her birth on, she had been alone and on her own, relying on her own strengths and skills to survive and go on...  
  
It hadn't been enough once...  
  
But Heaven had decided that she had to suffer on...for whatever crime she had comitted, whatever she had done, she had to remain in this world forever and she bore the curse alone...  
  
With no one to help, with no one to feel with her...  
  
And just when she had found someone...  
  
She was already dead and her own death didn't matter...  
  
Kaze...  
  
She didn't want the only one who had ever showed true pity towards her to die...  
  
The only one who had cared...  
  
"Ssssss... pitiful." She heard herself speak, but not with her mouth. Next to her, the winged, clawed, spiked demon that shared her body appeared, as if it had taken on an existence of its own. "I told you we should have used him before he died, like all the lesser mortal things do."  
  
"He's not dead!" she replied, turning to look at what she was on her other side.  
  
"And even if it is pitiful, it is him who gave me emotions, feelings and truth for the time I spent with him. It is him who helped me get along my path faster than I had hoped I could."   
  
"Bah! You saw how that little squirt-bitch looked at you, the other day. She let him die, and then she let you rot in the sun." The demon spat in her face and chuckled disdainfully. "You're hopeless. And you think that his feelings were true as well? He'd grown bored of you and your constant and pathetic whining."  
  
"I'm NOT whining..." she said with a growl in her throat.   
  
"And Kim didn't let him die!!!! I saw it in her eyes, I saw what she felt and I believe her that she tried her best to save him. Why wouldn't she? He's a shapeshifter and they are friends. Friendship is something you can't even comprehend and it makes me stronger than you'll ever be!"  
  
She wiped the spit from her face and glared at the demon in defiance. She wouldn't let him win!  
  
"Fine... tell me then how many friends you have so I can gauge how stronger you've become."  
  
"I've gained one friend...one true friend and that is more than I need to keep you at bay. I cannot defeat you, not yet, but you cannot defeat ME either, because I've got support and you have not!"  
  
She called up the images of Kaze's smile, his laughter and his jokes, remembering the moments of friendliness he had granted her and concentrated on them as hard as she could.   
  
"Nice memories." The demon whispered with venom. "That is all that will remain; after all, you killed him."  
  
"No..." She tried to convince herself, but the demon licked it's loathsome fangs as it found a wedge.  
  
"I bet that under normal conditions, he'd have survived your Kiai..." It hissed. "But the living are ih-so fragile; after being hit with that lightning, you delivered the killing blow."  
  
"He was still alive."  
  
"'Was'... interesting choice of words." The monster circled around her in the nothingness. "You attacked without any consideration, and you call yourself a Thrashing Dragon... life is the last item in your agenda! And I know! I wrote it!"  
  
Hikari shut her eyes and covered her ears, but the obscene cackling of her darker half cut right into her soul.  
  
"Did you notice the street urchin hiding around the corner?" The demon closed in. "It certainly didn't have the stamina of your pet dog, so he must have died right on the spot."  
  
"There wasn't anybody!" Hikari retorted. "Kaze checked it; he chose the place and time!"  
  
"What will it be next time?" Her dark half insisted. "Will you burn a family's house with goblin fire? Will you explode somebody's head off with a blast of Yang? Or merely do what you've always done and suck people dry of their dreams and hopes? It doesn't matter if you drink of their blood or of their breath; you're just stealing their life."  
  
"Kaze..." Hikari, whispered, hopeful.  
  
"HIkari!" The fox woke up in the middle of the forest; it was dead quiet; no birds, no insects; only plants. He stretched his limbs and tried to shift to any of his biped forms, but found himself unable to.  
  
"OK." He yipped. "What spirit did I offend this time?"  
  
He was answered with silence.  
  
"Waaaaait." He sniffed around. "Oh, great... now I remember... is Death supposed to be so boring?"  
  
No answer yet.  
  
"Anyway, I have business back with the living, and rising up as someone's past life is just not going to work out."  
  
Again, silence.  
  
"I guess nobody's going to answer, right?"  
  
Definitely not.  
  
"Riiiiiight." Kaze looked around suspiciously. There were no scents in the air, and while the sun shone high above the sky, there was no warmth, and neither cold. He trotted around for a while more, picking directions at random, until he came upon a lake. No wind blew, and the surface was like a perfectly polished mirror. From its waters, he heard someone cry.  
  
"Huh?" He poked closer and peered into the lake. He only saw his reflection.  
  
The sobs and moans were filling the shore, worrying the kitsune. He curled his vulpine lips in a knowing grin and stared back into the water, but this time unfocusing on his image and trying to look beyond, as if he was crossing into the Umbra. He felt cold and numb when he pierced his own image and saw Hikari chained to the shallow bottom of the lake.  
  
"No... no..." He circled around the lake, knowing his fox form was not strong enough to help Hikari... hell, his half-fox was not particularly strong either, but at least it had better leverage.  
  
"Jump in." The water spoke.  
  
"It's a trap." The fox answered, used to speak with the oddest of things.  
  
"It's the only way to save her."  
  
"Hmmm... there are always other ways."  
  
"Not this time, little one."  
  
"Bet you there is." Kaze muttered, looking around. He exploded into orange lightning when he charged against a tree, but deftly bounced himself off to another trunk, and slowly made his way up. Foxes are not arboreal creatures, and he was having a difficult time not falling off the branch he ended up on while recovering his breath. Even in fox shape, he was ninja, and he ran expertly until the end of the branch, catching the tip of a lower and younger tree with his snout. His own weight lowered the trunk, and he swung himself to make sure he came down at the right spot. A bit more, and if Hikari could take hold of his tail, this dream-trap they found themselves in would surely dissipate.  
  
His gums ached, but he was getting closer.  
  
"No tricks, fox." The water spoke again, and suddenly the bottom deepened.  
  
Kaze muttered something about one-track minds.  
  
"She won't drown, but she won't die either; she'll go mad chained to the bottom for eternity." And then the rock she was chained moved towards the center of the lake. So he swung back to the shore, landing gracefully but flexing his overtaxed jaws.  
  
"Hikari..." He looked at the lake with a frown.  
  
"Kaze." Hikari repeated his name like a mantra of hope.  
  
"Stop doing that." The demon said." It's useless; he's dead, and by your hand. It was an accident, yes, but born of your own disregard for life."  
  
"What do you want of me?" She asked.  
  
"Just for you to take some vacations and let -me- wear the skin. You will feel better." The demon began to shrink. As it talked, the spines disappeared, the wings collapsed and the claws retracted, until it was a perfect copy of Hikari, except that her eyes where red. "No more pain, no more loneliness."  
  
"No... even if only in my memories, I will always have him..."  
  
Kaze was getting tired, sitting on his romp for hours, contemplating his problem. Anxiety began to gnaw on him; seeing Hikari's petite form unmoving in the lake.  
  
"Have it your way, little fox." The lake said finally. "She's now mine forever."  
  
"No! Wait!"  
  
"You can go back to the waking world, kitsune."  
  
"Give her back!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"She's not yours to have!"  
  
"Oh, and she's yours?"  
  
Kaze was struck speechless; so soon and already he thought of her as his own?"  
  
"She... she is herself's; I'm only helping her find the way."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I..."  
  
"Say your farewell."  
  
"No! Hikari!"  
  
---  
  
Hikari woke up with a start, the memory of the sun's curse and her demon's torment still fresh. Then came the cold dread of losing Kaze; her only link to life. He stared at the wooden ceiling and slowly came to notice her surroundings. She was lying on a futon, covered by a thick blanket. Her body was whole, as she could see when looking at her arms.  
  
And she wasn't alone. Kaze's human form slept beside her. She let out an exclamation of joy and surprise; he was whole as well. She stared at him, relief washing all over her like a calming drug. She extended her hand to touch him, to make sure this wasn't another cruel trick of her P'o.  
  
"Go ahead." Kim had been sitting on the other side of the room the whole time. "Touch him; he's real."  
  
Hikari nodded at the chinese girl and passed her hand over his features, feeling his warmth. "Thank you..." She whispered. "Thank you... if my soul means anything to you, I thank you from its deepest corner."  
  
"I should have seen it before." Kim smiled strangely. "You brought him back."  
  
"I... me? But..." Hikari was confused now.  
  
"The waters in this house can replenish his spiritual strength, but not his life. I had to show him something that would make him call upon his rage, so the spirits would start healing his body. I showed him losing you."  
  
Hikari stared incomprehensibly at the Suijen, then back at Kaze's sleeping form. If she had tears, she'd be crying now.  
  
"I will leave you alone now." Kim stood up and slid the door to the sparse guest room she had placed both overemotional shen. She knew Kaze, and how the kitsune would commit his heart. She didn't knew the kuei-jin, but then again, not many undead had that sparkle in their eyes. She suppressed a pang of jealousy, the vampire girl needed the kitsune's heart much more than she ever did, and that may be why Kaze was so willing to present it. She slid the door shut.  
  
Hikari couldn't keep her hand from brushing Kaze's hair out of his face, studying every little wrinkle in his skin, and hypnotized by the slow rise and fall of his respiration. She pushed closer to him, as they were covered by the same blanket. She let her wearied head rest on his chest, her arms around him, his heartbeat a lullaby. She closed her eyes and smiled contentedly when he twitched, her eyes giving his a welcome back to the world. When he smiled back, Hikari didn't need the sun to remember what being alive felt like; she just pressed herself around him and felt the warmth of his own embrace. 


	5. Third Scroll: Alleyways

WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC  
  
THE THIRD SCROLL  
  
ALLEYWAYS  
  
The little house appeared broken down and abandoned, and was reputed to be haunted. The garden was unkempt, the windows shuttered and the roof looked like it would break down any minute. It would have been a perfect haunt for the restless dead, if not for the warding charms pasted on each corner and entrance inside the house itself, which looked nothing like its outward facade.  
  
Hikari opened her eyes in this house, grateful for the Yang that infused her being and allowed her to mimic the warmth of the living. She was alert instantly, taking in her surroundings. She had moved her haven to this place, one of Kaze's safehouses. Twilight colored the world orange, as the last of the sun's rays disappeared from the world. She smiled, and pressed closer to the fox-changer, letting his warm skin touch as much of hers as anatomy allowed.  
  
"You're finally awake." Kaze said, eyeing her from half-closed eyelids. He could walk around day and night unhindered, but his habits were mostly nocturnal. In the few days Hikari had spent in this house, she'd gone to sleep and awoke in the kitsune's arms, his presence a small comfort against the unending nightmares her P'o fed her during her sleep. If he left her side during the daylight hours, Hikari never knew.  
  
"Yessss." She hissed playfully, climbing on top of him, and resting her head in his shoulder.  
  
"We have stuff to do tonight." He chuckled, playing with her short hair.  
  
"It can wait." Hikari mumbled.  
  
"Maybe... night life doesn't truly start until a few hours yet. But we need to hmphgbrghh..."  
  
Hikari achieved what few people had ever done: she shut Kaze up, covering his babbling mouth with hers.  
  
"I said..." She smiled mischievously while shifting position on top of him. "It can wait."  
  
"Uh-huh..." Kaze nodded amusedly.  
  
---  
  
And so they abandoned the house through the trap door about an hour later, heading for the seedier side of the city and dressed for it. Kaze had abandoned his casual dress and now wore beaten and overused clothes befitting his roguish activities. Hikari... she dressed as she always deed, enticing and brash. Her arm around the kitsune's not doing anything to dissipate their dangerous look; quite the contrary, since whether they were a force to be reckoned with by themselves, together they looked like a barely contained natural disaster.  
  
They blend into the lower districts perfectly.  
  
"Police doesn't care about missing children." Kaze spoke low. "But the Yakuza might; they keep order where the law won't, and if they were not involved with Nakamura, they're bound to be pissed at him."  
  
"But if they were..." Hikari answered.  
  
"Then we're in deep poo-poo." The ninja scratched his head. "My people haven't been able to get anything out of the children; their minds are yet to heal. And..." He let the phrase trail off.  
  
"And...?" The beautiful girl tugged on his arm.  
  
"Nothing. It won't affect us."  
  
"Kaze... please, tell me." Hikari was surprised and worried by the uncharacteristic frown of preocupation on her companion's face.  
  
"Lord Tenryu disapproves of our... association." He said, looking straight ahead.  
  
"But the opinion of one courtesan won't matter." She tried to reassure him.  
  
"Oh... Lord Tenryu is not a simple courtesan... he's one of the Middle Dragons, and my Court tends to follow his words very closely."  
  
"Is that... bad for you?" The undead girl unconsciously separated a few inches from Kaze.  
  
He smiled, pulling her back. "As long as we deliver results and catch the bastard behind those machines, they can't do anything but glare. And I don't keep their company that much, anyway."  
  
Hikari nodded, but still with a pang of guilt over the ways she had imposed on his life already. She noticed the change in the crowd as soon as they entered the lower district. Most of these people were criminals of a sort or another; some were Yakuza-run, others had governmental tolerance. Very few were even partially innocent.  
  
They were amid human wilderness, and they were not the only predators roaming the night.  
  
Though part of her mind was still precoccupied thinking about the news Kaze had given to her, the news about the disapproval, she kept looking through the people walking past them. She was looking for someone in particular and she knew that this one might be able to help them.   
  
But still, the words rang in her mind and brought up the thoughts of how her elders would look upon this relationship. She didn't have much contact to her court, but she still showed herself there regularily, if only because it was expected of her. She was an elder of her kind after all.   
  
How would they react...  
  
She was almost certain that it would be almost the same reaction as the one Kaze had experienced, maybe even stronger disapproval.   
  
But did she care?  
  
She had always respected her elders for the deeds they had done, never for just their status and she knew that she was not un-respected in the court either, since she was one of the best warriors the Kuei-jin in the immediate area had, if not the best.   
  
But all this respect wouldn't change their opinion...  
  
And then her thoughts were ripped back into reality as her eyes locked on the man she had been looking for.   
  
He was rather tall for a japanese, about 1.79 meters with short-cropped, black hair and harsh, life-signed features. His skin was rather ashen and seemed a bit sunken around the eyes and Hikari knew why that was the case.   
  
Wearing casual, fitting clothes, this man was a being like herself, following another Dharmic path, one that rather opposed her own, but she had still found ways to let some sort of connection form which had always granted her information about Yakuza activities especially in the supernatural.   
  
"Well hello there Jin-kun." she said with a light smile on her lips.   
  
The man turned to look at her completely, black eyes gazing into hers fora moment before a weak smile came to his lips.   
  
"Ah, Hikari-chan, you found yourself a new playmate, I see?" he said with mild amusement in his voice.   
  
Hikari herself answered before Kaze could say anything.   
  
"It's not that simple this time Jin. May I introduce, this is Kaze, my companion." she nodded to Kaze.  
  
"And Kaze, meet Jin Akaiwa, the best source for information on certain activities we are looking into."  
  
The two supernatural beings eyes each other and Hikari knew that they didn't just look through eyes alone.   
  
"You took one of HIS kind for a companion?" Jin asked with more than mild surprise and a certain tone of disgust in his voice.   
  
"Yes, one of MY kind."   
  
This time Kaze didn't give Hikari a chance to speak before him. He eyed the other Kuei-jin with obvious distrust.  
  
"Oh geeze you two, could you cut it out for a moment. I just need some information from you Jin and you know you owe me something!" Hikari said with a light annoyance in her words. This meeting was only a light appetizer for what was to come when the court would find out about Kaze and her.   
  
"Information about what?" Jin asked finally, turning to look at Hikari.  
  
"A guy named Nakamura. I know you are with the high-ups in the Yakuza, so if anything of greater importance is discussed, you would know. Did you ever hear of the name?"   
  
Kaze stood, watching the other Kuei-jin quietly, realizing just how different this one and Hikari were. That ones body was full of Yin, deathly energy and he seemed arrogant beyond comprehension. But then again, he also knew that his own kind didn't act much different most of the time.   
  
Still he disdained of creatures like him, loathing and craving for death, embracing it.   
  
Still, this was Hikari's best contact and even himself couldn't object that it was logical to ask this Jin-guy, since he was a high-up in Yakuza politics.   
  
"Nakamura..." The Yin-heavy vampire thought. "It does ring a bell. But you know there's a price tag attached, Hikari-chan."  
  
"I didn' think otherwise. But what is the price this time?" she retorted quietly.  
  
"Let's see..." He eyed Kaze. "A pint of his blood."  
  
"No way!" she exclaimed edging nearer to Kaze. "He's my companion!"  
  
Jin chuckled. "Companion... Blood of your blood, no?" He said. "Or haven't you bedded him yet?... must be the fleas."  
  
Kaze was quiet, but his eyes shone.  
  
"Remember what happened last time you angered me?" Her eyes glowed dangerously as she spoke.  
  
"How could I forget?" The kuei-jin smirked. "But that time I didn't have something you wanted."  
  
"You're willing to take the risk that you are our only source?" She grinned a demonic smile.  
  
"Regarding Nakamura... yes." The other monster stood with deathlike calm. "If not, I will spread the word and no one will talk to you."  
  
"Then we'll have to find other ways. You won't have his blood!" She growled low and already turned to go.  
  
"Wait." Kaze stopped her. "I guess his information is not so good, if he's asking for something so cheap and useless."  
  
"No tricks, hengeyokai." Jin said, and Hikari realized that he had no way to know what kind of beast Kaze was; the other vampire didn't know he was dealing with a kitsune.  
  
"Still, you're my love." she said quietly. "You..mean too much to me. Even your... cheap blood."  
  
Kaze squeezed her hand, hidden in the folds of his jacket. "You could have my blood, kuei-jin, but it would serve you nothing. Kitsune blood is cursed, as many Kinjin know when trying to drink from us. They burn so prettily." The human-shaped fox grinned, and Jin appeared less sure.  
  
"So see, there you have it. Change your price." Hikari said quietly.  
  
Jin scowled, thinking.  
  
"I mean." Kaze added. "I can always make more blood, even if it rots you when you take it."  
  
Hikari nodded quietly and eyed the other supernatural being, waiting for a response.  
  
"Have it your way."Jin spat. "10 golds. The information is not that good."  
  
"I knew I could trust to get things from you." She handed him his payment.  
  
"The mortal was corrupt; he was buying children from China and Korea. We never found out what he did with them. There was a ship, from America, moving merchandise to his mansion, and we think they shipped some of the children out."  
  
"So the Yakuza had nothing to do with him?"  
  
"The pathetic husk was authority." Jin continued. "He'd commit seppuku before dealing with us."  
  
"Or sell his soul to Yomi." Kaze said. With disdain, Jin nodded.  
  
"Any idea who might be in the background? Or was he acting alone?"  
  
"He was dealing with a Chin'ta, but I hear he exploded." Jun chuckled. "Then there's that ship; same one for five years. The 'Brave Explorer 3'. Stupid name for a ship."  
  
"Hmmm. Anything else?"  
  
"Not for ten gold." His face was impassive. "I'd ask for a night of your Yang-doings, but your dog would bite me."  
  
"Sorry, this doggy doesn't eat carrion."  
  
"Yep and it's good this way." Grinning softly, she tugged lightly on Kaze's arm. "Thanks for the help!"  
  
"I will report to the court about this." Jin said somberly.  
  
"My people will talk to your people." Kaze replied insolently, being pulled away by Hikari. "And you know how those parties turn out."  
  
The kitsune put an arm around Hikari's shoulders, laughing softly.  
  
"Sorry my sweet. But he's the best contact I have in these matters." She said after they were a bit away from Jin.  
  
"Nice guy." He answered. "Would've teased him out of his socks if we didn't need him."  
  
"I know." She smiled softly and leaned over to kiss him lightly. "Not all of us can be like me."  
  
"Fortunately." He stopped and held her chin high. "I wouldn't know from where to choose." He kissed her before she could reply.  
  
"Don't say such things. I'm embarrassed." She smiled softly after the kiss. "So, what now?"  
  
"Find this 'Brave Explorer 3'." Kaze smiled too. "It -is- a stupid name for a ship."  
  
"Heh, right about that! So let's go to the docks. Best place to look for ships." She winked softly.  
  
They loosed themselves in the crowd, angling for the docks. The commerce gave life to Edo, a city that would otherwise be abandoned. There were ships from all over the world, and sailors who leered at the young-looking japanese couple walking among them, totally ignorant that the two 'youths' could dismember any of them within seconds.  
  
"Hmmm... There are two ways to do it: ask the gaijin, or ask the locals." Kaze whispered to her. "Who do you want to deal with?"  
  
Hikari eyed the surrounding area slowly and then shrugged quietly, looking towards Kaze.   
  
"That always depends. But I think it would be easier to get information out of the gaijin's. They can be so easy to fool and frighten if necessary."  
  
A slight feral grin played over her lips.  
  
Kaze chuckled. "You should be more careful, dear. There are times when its not convenient for people to know you're shen. Want to do this by yourself or need my backup?"  
  
He grinned, an arm around Hikari's shoulder. He started to walk a bit erratically, as if a bit drunk, and started guiding Hikari to an alley behind a warehouse.  
  
She chuckled feintly.   
  
"Indeed? And why should that be careful? The poor gaijin would be scared to death anyways."   
  
A soft shrug and a light grin playing over her beautiful lips.  
  
"Anyways, I would appreciate any backup on this one. I'm not so much an inforation gatherer really."  
  
"Your beauty is enough to make the stones sing." He whispered as they rounded the alley's corner. "Right... we'll start with the smaller ships; they're less cocky and need to move around more to break even with their smaller cargoes."  
  
He kissed her gently.  
  
"Try not to frighten them... words of a pretty huntress could reach our quarry if you call too much attention."  
  
She nodded softly and approached one of the ships slowly, using the ways of moving she had learned during her days in the streets. Walking sensually, swaying her hips lightly.  
  
Her eyes though took in every movement and registered everything she saw, already hunting for clues.  
  
"I'm right behind you." Kaze whispered softly, but when she looked back with a smile, he was gone.  
  
"Kaze?"  
  
"Uhm..." A disembodied voice answered. "I'm still here, just temporarily unavailable to sight."  
  
Hikari chuckled before returning to her task, angling slowly towards a trading ship of Western build. Not one of the ugly steam-powered ones, but one which still navigated by sails and the favor of the spirits of the seas. There was a lone deckhand minding the plank, but Hikari heard through her acute senses that there were others aboard, still awake and not allowed to enjoy the port's pleasures. He was a tall man, easily three heads taller than Hikari and tanned by long days under the ocean's sun. He was sitting down beneath a lamp when he noticed the young-looking kuei-jin. He stood up at once.  
  
She looked up to the towering man and gave him one of her most loveable smiles, inclining her head to the side and making a short bow before the man.   
  
"Greetings sir, I couldn't help but notice you sitting around rather alone and I...ummm, well I have a few questions to ask, so I was thinking you might want to help me?"  
  
The man asked something, but Hikari didn't understand him. He signaled her to wait and cried at the ship. Another sailor, shorter but still able to look down at everyone Hikari knew, in human form, of course.  
  
"You want something, li'l sis?" The second sailor spoke in awkward japanese, either mistaking the term for 'lady' or being disrespectful on purpose. His leery eyes pointed towards the second alternative.  
  
Hikari once more inclined her head and smiles, still one of her cutest smiles.   
  
"Yes, indeed. I am looking for information on a ship and I believe that you would be the right people to ask. You know, I am looking for my little brother and he was supposed to arrive on that ship."  
  
The leery man translated, and added something that he himself laughed at, but that the giant only frowned.  
  
"What's the name of the ship, missy?"  
  
"Brave Explorer 3." she replied quietly, eying the two quietly, not leaving them from her sight one second.   
  
She would go at great lengths to find information for the ship, though she didn't know yet how long these lengths were anymore, not after what had happened between her and Kaze.   
  
The giant muttered something, shaking his head. From his expression, Hikari could almost guess what it was: 'stupid name for a ship'. The two foreigners exchanged a few words, and the giant looked annoyed, if not outright angry.  
  
"We haven't crossed paths, but we can ask the nightwatch if he saw anything." The gaijin took a step back, allowing Hikari a clear way to the plank and up to the ship. "He can't leave his post, so we need to go to him."  
  
The giant man said something, but the interpreter brushed him off.  
  
Knowing that they were probably trying to lure her into the ship with an excuse, but not caring one bit, playing the part of the innocent little girl perfectly, she walked up the ramp of the ship slowly, looking around her with big eyes.  
  
Curious eyes followed her, and she in turn followed her guide. Some of the sailors asked him something, but he waved them off too. He guided her below deck into the cabins and knocked on a door at the end of the narrow corridor. He opened the door and let her in.  
  
It was a small office with a bed, and a pale man was writing some papers when he looked up. His clothes were elegant yet worn, and they sure looked like they'd seen better days.  
  
She eyed the man and the room curiously, her senses on full alert and energies just waiting to be released. She had no clue if Kaze was still with her, but she trusted him to be there when she was in trouble and that gave her some possibility to ease her mind.  
  
"Ummm...greetings."  
  
The man behind the desk looked at her oddly, then at the sailor, and asked something with a soft, yet authoritative voice. Next to her, the man looked nervous, a drop of sweat falling down his temple. She looked back at the more elegant man, and her blood nearly boiled in rage when he noticed that the pale man was not breathing.  
  
"My apologies, youg girl." He said in perfect japanese. "My servant has rather strange ideas about what fate should befall pretty young things like you. He shall be punished for tricking you here, but in payment of your wasted time, I shall strive to assist you in whatever small matter brought you to his attention."  
  
She nodded slightly and inclined her head again, still acting as though she didn't know who was sitting in front of her, or at least what.   
  
She did hope that Kaze already knew that this man was not human though.  
  
"Well, I was hoping to fin some information about the "Brave Explorer 3". You know, my little brother was on board that ship and he hasn't been at the agreed meeting point."  
  
"The 'Brave Explorer 3'?" The Western vampire, for such was this creature, asked, only raising an eyebrow. "I have heard of this ship, but I was not aware that it allowed for passengers. You do look like a local japanese but..." He paused. "But were are my manners? I go by the name of Snorri Tannerson." He go up and bowed with oriental manners.  
  
She raised a brow and returned the bow in Japanese tradition, meaning that she beant lower than him, as the women were still lower in social status.   
  
"Hikari Kyusenko, sir. And I would appreciate any kind of information you could give me." she said with a gentle voice.   
  
Kin-jin, she thought quietly and had to keep herself from shivering. She didn't know much of the western Vampire's but in her eyes, they weren't worth wasting time with, but as always, there were exceptions.   
  
During her unlife, she had already met one Kin-jin and had built some sort of contact towards the man. To her surprise, he had been most willing to learn of the Eastern way of looking at the Wheel of the Ages and of the 6th Age and everything. A timid, yet secure connection had been formed, but all other Kin-jin she had met had been arrogant, unknowing idiots.  
  
"Look girl... if your little brother was on board that ship, I'd go to the nearest temple and pray for his safety." Tannerson sat down again, and pointed her to do the same in one of the chairs in front of the desk. "Officially, the 'Brave Explorer' series belong to a British privateer; I hear there are five of them. But there have been rumors about one or more of those ships traffic in slaves from all over the world. I regret to give you these news, Miss Kyusenko, and I regret not being able to assist you in retrieving your brother."  
  
She clasped her hands before her mouth as would a normal japanese girl her age do in such a situation.   
  
"What? Why?" she stammered, playing the innocent perfectly. With a slight regulation of the flow of chi, she manipulated her eyes to get glittery, imitating rising tears.   
  
"No...it can't be true. He said he was safe and...he...oh no..."   
  
Appealing to the consciousness of a vampire was always a thing which usually ended in non cooperation from the vampire, but still, it was an approach she had to try.  
  
"I'm sorry." The vampire repeated, looking genuinely regretful; he got up and walked next to Hikari, yet he didn't touch her in any way. He knelt down, as he was quite tall as well, and looked Hikari in the eyes. He frowned for a second. "It is a pity that one so young should have eyes so old; I apologize for bringing another burden to what must already be a hard life for you."  
  
She nodded quietly and averted her eyes, glad for once that japanese etiquette didn't allow her to look into the eyes of someone superior to her.   
  
She had no idea if the western vampire knew of her being a creature of the night, too, but she hoped he didn't and thus simply kept staring at the ground, imitating slight shaking of her body to make the others believe she was holding back tears forcefully.  
  
"Thank you for your regret and your help. At least now I know why he hasn't turned up at the meeting point. I will take my leave now and not bother you any longer..."  
  
"Wait." He said and returned behind his desk. He took a sheet of paper and wrote something on it, then poured melting wax from a candle on it until it formed a small circle in the paper, and then stamped his ring on it. He then chanted something in yet another language, and Hikari felt her skin crawl.  
  
The Kin-Jin folded the paper and handed it over to her.  
  
"I have sailed around the world for more years than you can imagine, girl, and I've seen it used for brave endeavours and foul crimes. In time I grew to respect the Ocean and abandoned my old ways. I decry these inhuman doings, and I will do what I can, from my own end of the world, to shed light upon your brother's captors so the authorities may punish them. I cannot guarantee the return of your sibling, only that, even if it takes a century or two, the criminals will feel your vengeance. This note will allow you into the foreigner's quarters in the capital of Kyoto; the privateer you look for is called 'Liam Shannington', he conducts business there when he docks elsewhere than in Edo."  
  
Hikari nodded slightly and allowed herself a brief smile.  
  
"You speak so kindly and I don't know how I could repay the kindness you offer me."  
  
She kept herself from showing too much gladness, because inside she was grinning like mad. This was a very good start to their investigations.  
  
"Live whatever life you can." He answered. "That, and pointing me out to these persons' crimes are reward enough."  
  
He smiled, a weary yet strong gesture.  
  
'A strange Kin-jin.' she thought to herself, eying the stranger for a moment longer.  
  
Then she bowed deeply again.  
  
"Then I thank you again, though I can't simply let this matter rest like that. Should you ever need help in the streets of this city, you can ask around for me. Some people know my name and others know my appearance and some of those can point me out to you. Maybe I can help...someday..." she smiled softly and turned to go.  
  
"You don't fit into your role as stranger Mr. Tannerson." she said quietly before beginning to walk out of the room.   
  
"I've always broken what has been imposed on me against my will." He answered as a goodbye.  
  
She made her way off the ship without any trouble; all the sailors letting her pass, and even the leery-eyed interpreter defered to her.  
  
"I don't trust him." She heard Kaze's voice near her, nearing a corner.  
  
"Me neither." she muttered below her breath. "But it's the best lead we have so far, you know." She smiled feintly and quickly got out of hearing and sighting range from anyone, vanishing in a dark alley.   
  
"I never trust Kin-jin. The only exception is an old 'friend' of mine, but that aside, these westerners generally are up to no good, though I had the impression he was really trying to help me."  
  
"He probably was." The fox-man materialized in front of her. "But he put a spell on that letter, and I don't know what it does. Western magic is very rigid and tough to crack, and I'm not a sorcerer to even start trying. He might gain something out of the dust we'll kick up when we find this privateer of his."  
  
"Most probably." she replied, grinning softly.  
  
"But then again, who does anything for no gain at all these days. To be honest, i would have been surprised had he not done anything to gain something."  
  
She shrugged her shoulders feintly and nudged Kaze on the side with her elbow.   
  
"Come on, don't be so pessimistic. We have a good lead and we should use it, no?"  
  
"Pessimistic, me?" He looked at her aghast. "You have insulted my honor! I shall never face this down! I'm better off dead!"  
  
With one swift movement, he took his short-sword from behind him an poked himself in the stomach with the scabbard.  
  
Hikari gently grabbed the sword by the scabbard and pulled it aside, leaning a bit forward to place a gentle kiss on his lips.   
  
"Never say something like that. You are not allowed to die...got that?" she whispered and inclined her head in the cutest way imaginable, blinking her big eyes softly.  
  
"Got it." He said, and his form was suddenly replaced by a small fox sitting on his haunches in front of her, cocking his head and twitching his ears.  
  
He stood on two legs and barked.  
  
She laughed softly and leaned down to kiss the fox on the tip of the snout and then looked around her.   
  
"So, shall we go to that freelancer then?"  
  
The man kneeled and stole a kiss from her.  
  
"We have to make preparations." He said when he released her lips. "Kyoto is quite far from here."  
  
He stood, looking in the direction of the docks. "And I don't like to rush off into ideas I didn't have myself." He seriousness disappeared a second after. "Did I tell you about the crocodile that almost eats me? It was my cousin's idea to go dive-fishing into the river."  
  
Again, Hikari found herself overjoyed at his ability to lapse into funny stories, his ability to be so jovial and happy at all times. While listening to the story, she simply watched him, took in his features and the way they radiated his emotions and feelings.  
  
When he was done, a soft smile played over her lips.   
  
"Well...and about Kyoto?"   
  
"I can carry a thick sack to carry you during daylight." Kaze winked. Or we can buy passage to the nearest port and walk from there. I hear the emperor is building a steam train, but the project is far from even starting."  
  
"Hmmm..." Hikari murmured and looked around silently for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.   
  
"Well, I suppose it would be best to buy passage. Nothing against you carrying me, but it would tire even YOU out to carry me around every day."  
  
"I could always drag you." He tugged at her arm. "But yes. Most passenger ships book at daylight; I'll take care of it."  
  
His tug became a definite pull. "Ever visited Kyoto?"  
  
"Ummmm...no..." she replied and let herself be dragged along with him, following the fox to wherever he was about to lead her.   
  
"Why, have you been?"  
  
"Yep; but it wasn't the capital yet." I don't know how much it has changed, so the best way to get there is to go as poor peasants on their first trip to the capital. There are plenty of those, I bet. Which means..." He looked at her amused. "That we'll have to dress you with clothes a bit less comfortable..."  
  
"Ah sheesh..."   
  
She pouted, acting like a rich little girl who had just been deprived of a doll she wanted to have so badly. But the twinkle in her eyes told Kaze that she was just playing and not being serious right now.   
  
"You want pretty little me clothed in rags???"  
  
"I want pretty little you not calling attention to any of the shen with interests in the capital..."He playfully slipped a hand benath her custom kimono, playing with the fabric. "We will be trespassing until both of us present ourselves to the respective courts of our people there."  
  
He leaned a bit closer, tugging now at her dress. "And I want to keep you all to myself..."  
  
"Oh...is that so..." she whispered, a soft smile coming to her lips. "You're a bad fox, Kaze." she said with amusement in her voice as she felt his hand slip beneath the fabric of her Kimono.   
  
But her thoughts traveled to the presentation at local court in Kyoto already. She hoped that the elders of that court didn't know of her already.   
  
"Actually... I'm great at being a fox." He banished her thoughts with a kiss, yet Kaze himself was thinking about how to go about presenting his case to the Frost Lake Court.  
  
She leaned in to return the kiss lovingly and then smiled a loving smile, a smile she only reserved for him.   
  
"Well, I think it might pay off to take a visit to someone I know in Kyoto. At least, if he still lives there."  
  
"I hope he has greater animal sympathy than your friend Jin." He disengaged from the kiss, and took her arm once they returned to busier streets.  
  
Hikari chuckled feintly and inclined her head, gazing through the streets quietly as she answered.  
  
"Oh I bet he has. He's of the shapechanging people, too."  
  
"Oh, my... then I hope he's not someone I've tricked before..." He laughed softly and led her off to spend the rest of the night not worrying about the task and the trip upon them.  
  
---  
  
Hikari awoke alone. She knew Kaze had said he'd be arranging for their passage during daylight, but this was the first time he wasn't there when her eyes opened at dusk.  
  
She looked around the room she rested in and found a slight ill feeling clawing at her mind, a feeling of dread when she realized Kaze was not here as always.   
  
She got up slowly and already she felt the P'o laugh at her, tease her, trying to take control of her as she slowly walked through the room to try and find a note or anything that might give her a clue why Kaze was not here.   
  
The sounds of the street came through the boarded-up walls, but otherwise, there was silence. Kaze's stash of food for himself was there, as well as the writing implements he pored over for hours to create the magical paper talismans she'd seen him use at Nakamura mansion. She even found his array of ninja equipment: black spikes and other metalworks for which purpose Hikari could only guess at, shuriken, a folded kama sickle, a bag of metal marbles... but nothing that would tell her where he was.  
  
"Kaze...?" she whispered quietly, the P'o's voice inside her growing stronger with every second. She was afraid, afraid that something might have happened to Kaze and she had no idea where he might be. There was no evidence of where he could be.   
  
Slowly, she approached the door to the exit of the place, the demon inside her clawing at its cage visciously.   
  
There was no answer. Only the sounds of the street. She walked and went out the shelter they shared, and mingled with the people, extending her senses to detect his familiar chi signature. She sensed something else; another of her kind was nearby.  
  
She narrowed her eyes slowly and turned, facing in the direction of the other Kuei-jin that was near her, readying herself for an attack or anything else.   
  
If this one had harmed Kaze in any way, he would pay dearly.   
  
He was huddled in a corner, posing as a beggar and doing a very good job of it, since nobody else was paying attention to him. His face was hidden by a tattered straw hat, his body covered by a muddied blanket. His body burned with Jin energy, and her nose picked up the scent of decay.  
  
She arrowed in on the false beggar and stood above him for a moment, not saying a word, simply gazing down on the Jin infused being and narrowed her eyes even more.   
  
"Why are you here?" she whispered with a voice that was not only hers but also that of her P'o who was glad for the anger burning in Hikari.   
  
"I have a message for you." He said with a raspy voice. "I haven't found the hovel you and the dog stay in, so I decided to wait here for you to find me. It's a message from Jin."  
  
"Go ahead." She simply said, afraid and angry at the same time now.   
  
A message from Jin. That could be more information, which she doubted since information always came at a price or it could be a message from the court.   
  
And that would be bad.  
  
"The dog is our guest." He stated simply. "The courts wish to clarify your... working relationship with it."  
  
The vampire rose, and Jin saw exposed teeth, surrounded by decaying flesh. The hat's rim hid the rest of the vampire's face. He was surely one consumed by the dark energies of Yin.  
  
She narrowed her eyes more and barely was able to hold back her anger and fury.   
  
"When am I to present myself to the court then?" she managed to say between her teeth.   
  
"Right now." He pointed at the street. "But not in the palace, not this time for you. Follow me."  
  
She refused to comment on that. In the past years, she had been loyal to the court, follwoing its orders and being the most furious fighter the court had to offer, winning battles anyone else would have lost.   
  
But that was the way in Kuei-jin society. You could work all your life to get the respect of your elders, one false move could crumble everything.   
  
She followed the Yin-infested Vampire quietly.   
  
They made their way near to the docks; he led her to a warehouse with the windows covered from the inside, and a large kuei-jin standing guard outside. He nodded and let them in.  
  
There was darkness, but it was inconsequential to her. There was a circle of lamps at the center, enclosing an area of around 20 meters in diameter. Just beyond the lamps' light, she saw Jin, surrounded by some of his Wu and other mortal gang members. At the center of the light, there was a black-clad body tied to a western chair, his back to her. There was just a thin spark of life in that person.  
  
Again, she narrowed her eyes and approached Jin slowly, all senses aware, ready to fight her and Kaze's way out if necessary.   
  
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked quietly.   
  
"Just a little get-together, Hikari-chan." He answered, and a low chuckle rippled throughout the warehouse, revealing that more people hid in the darkness. "Your pet wasn't too keen on coming, though."  
  
"You're treading on dangerous ground here Jin. But I see, that as always you're afraid to confront me alone." she spat, coming to a silent halt a few feet away from her supposed contact.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"Test your... dedication." He said, ignoring her jibe. "I've never seen you like yesterday, Hikari-chan... I could even say you're growing soft. We made sure your boyfriend wouldn't be able to help..."  
  
"I'm NOT growing soft. You're talking senseless. I'm a Thrashing Dragon, you know that and as such my goal is to seek life and try to live. I'm sure I'm not the first Dragon to enter a relationship with a not-Kuei-jin."  
  
She growled low in her throat, still aware and alert to any movements around her.   
  
"And I'm a Devil Tiger... my goal is to destroy that..." He said softly. "Oh, my... I think the person in that chair has not much time to live..."  
  
"I do warn you. If you kill him, I will make sure to give you the time of your unlife with pain so intense that you can't even begin to imagine. You'll be begging me to release you from your suffering for it will be unlike anything you've experienced before, even worse than the Yomi world you crawled back out from!"  
  
Her words were spoken with that strange mix of her own voice and the voice of her P'o, dark, with a deadly conviction behind them, dangerous and sending a chill down the spine of almost anyone.  
  
"Then you will entertain us." Jin said, walking towards the chair, a long claw extended. "Show me that you're not soft, and this person shall live."  
  
"You dare threaten me!" she exclaimed, growling fiercely.   
  
Her eyes lingered on the claw a moment and then on the limp for of Kaze, shivering all over, she shook her head violently and tried to calm the raging P'o inside her.   
  
"What do you mean...entertain?" she whispered quietly.   
  
She had no choice. Kaze was too weak to help her and even she was outnumbered against so many Kuei-jin and mortals.   
  
"I think you know what I mean..." Jin said. "Fight us; right here, right now, all of us. I do warn you, he leant his palm on the head of his captor. "He'll still be here during our little game..."  
  
Hikari noticed something strange when Jin patted his victim's head. The hair... it was the wrong color; the person in the chair wasn't Kaze...  
  
"You little..." she whispered and shook her head, turning to fix her immortal stare at Jin. "All right...but first, I want to speak to him!"  
  
"In his condition?" The gang leader said. "These mortals die so easily when they're weak, even if they are part beast."  
  
"Heh. Maybe, but I won't fight you if I can't make sure that he is indeed the one you want to make me believe he is."   
  
She narrowed her eyes softly and looked around.  
  
"Should I find out you tried to fool me, I'll simply leave and take my revenge on you later."  
  
Jin narrowed his eyes, then smiled perversely. He crushed the man's head without effort, and licked the blood and brain matter from his hand.  
  
"I see you got me." He said. "But I didn't lie once. Your pet was indeed little willing to come to the party; he slipped away from our ambush and we've been looking for him. I just improvised."  
  
"Then be prepared for my revenge Jin. It won't come at a small cost." she said witha quiet, dangerous tone in her voice.   
  
"I will take my leave now. Should any of your goons find it fit to attack me, he will see what becomes of it."  
  
"I have you here, Hikari-chan... you will not leave without a fight." He growled, and all around her, the sound of weaponry being drawn marked the opening of a certain massacre.  
  
Hikari shook her head lightly and looked around herself a moment, then turned her gaze back to Jin.   
  
"Why is it that you are so interested in fighting with me?"  
  
Inside, she was preparing to fight however, drawing upon her chi reservoirs in preperation of use of a very potent discipline.   
  
"I told you already... you're growing soft over a stupid dog; in this, I preserve your strength for our kind. NOW!"  
  
There was an explosion somewhere, and Hikari felt something burn her flesh... Firearms!  
  
Concentrating not to let herself be distracted, Hikari channeled her chi in herself.  
  
Suddenly, she opened her mouth, a shout of such force and terror emitting from her throat that it was terrible to everyone who heard it. SHe used the discipline of Kiai, the power of the voice at a high level.  
  
There was a general scrambling and panicked shouts filled the room; Jin was snarling now, foaming blood at the mouth and laughing like a demon. He had claws all over his fingers, and his maw had elongated. Behind him, four other kuei-jin jumped in the air, going after Hikari.  
  
The surviving mortals in the room were beating at the door, crying desperately for the one outside to let them out.  
  
So it was time to fight again for Hikari. She grinned madly and Allowed her own demon to cover her body, claws sprouting from fingers and feet, spikes breaking the perfect skin as she grew and huge, leathery wings extending from her shoulders.   
  
She growled madly at the charging Kuei-jin, activating her Black Wind and charging onwards towards her attackers.   
  
But this time she wasn't fighting a weak Chin'ta, or a lone spider-spirit. This time she was against her peers. She slashed one's chest open, but it only opened her side to a sword thrust that scraped her and burned with Yin-magic. She was faster than the others, but they were fast too, and they outnumbered her.  
  
A loose flap of skin tightened around her legs, skin that had teeth.  
  
Snarling, Hikari drew upon her chi sources again to draw forth her Goblin sword, infusing it with Yang energy and swinging it in the direction of the skin that tried to hold her.   
  
She was outnumbered, she realized that, but she had never run away from a fight. She was the fiercest fighter in the local court, and the best and she could win, she knew that.   
  
She used all of her strengths, her powers in the combat.  
  
It was the only way she could stand a chance against her enemies.   
  
Her sword was blocked by the black Yin-blade the other was holding, and Jin's inhuman roar signed the other to open a way for his attack. He was wearing his demon form too, the tentacles growing from his back were tipped with scorpion stingers, and his arms prolongued at the elbows into thorned bones. His jaw was huge and filled with sharp teeth.  
  
Hikari was held, and fending off the others' attacks; she would receive Jin, but he would not go unscathed. But his flight through the air was stopped when one of the humans suddenly knocked his trajectory off with a flying kick. Rolling in the air, this new attacker lost the cloak that had been covering him to reveal orange fur, and three tails.  
  
Hikari almost forgot to fight, overjoyed with the sight of Kaze, but she was quickly pulled back into reality and concentrated on fighting off the other Kuei-jin visciously.   
  
Inside herself, she fought another battle.  
  
She strained not to let her P'o take control over herself, strengthened by all the bloodshed around her.   
  
She didn't want to lose control, especially not now, with Kaze present.  
  
Two of her attackers broke off to charge the fox, as Jin sprawled on the ground and tried to recover his balance. Kaze gestured a spell, and his attackers backs suddenly sported a couple of this sheets of paper. The two Kuei-jin leapt for him, but he was flat against the ground and they sailed over him.  
  
Hikari managed to break the hold on her legs: she was being attacked by the penangallan, the expert in Flesh Shintai, and by the sword-wielder. She saw Jin get ready, starting to charge for Kaze.  
  
"NO!" she cried, again with that horrendouns voice, but this time, all its destructive power was directed at Jin.   
  
The Cry of Blood.  
  
Jin staggered by the force of her shout, but he, unlike her, embraced his demon nature, and her attack only slowed his charge. However, her two attackers were confused, and the grip on her legs went weak.  
  
"Elemental Children, I call thee forth! Fire!" Kaze shouted, and the strips of paper on his attackers ignited, setting the two undead on fire. He faced Jin, and leapt an incredible height to avoid the charge. Jin, mad with rage charged the fox again.  
  
"I can handle him!" Kaze shouted Hikari. "Worry about -them-."   
  
The humans had recovered from their fright, and once again they were taking up their weapons.  
  
"Oh great!" Hikari muttered and held her Goblin Blade high in front of her, slashing it at the two Kuei-jin still holding her.   
  
Again, she channeled her chi inside her and activated yet another discipline, entering the Dragon Dance and using her Ghost Flame Shintai to the maximum effect.   
  
She moved and danced around the attacks of the other two vampires, and was soon close to the humans, enough to make their firearms useless and dangerous.  
  
On his side, Kaze had leapt well away of Jin's reach, and was again chanting and moving his hands. Hikari didn't see what happened, he only saw Jin break his new charge and blood and ichor spew from a dozen wounds as dozens of caltrops flew around him as if caught in an unfelt hurricane.  
  
For now, Hikari was content to know that Kaze was able to handle himself without her help and continued in her Dance of death, swinging her sword at attackers, using her wings and claws to fend off others.   
  
She was in her element, the field of battle and she was once again the most feared fighter of the court.   
  
Her enemies fell by the dozen; the two kuei-jin helping her when slaughtering themselves any poor mortal who got in their way. But they found that Hikari was too much of an opponent for them, and their only chance had been when they were all attacking her. Hikari heard an inhuman roar fill the room, and the attacks on her paused.  
  
Jin was on fire. He was trying to smother the flames, but they appeared to have life of their own. Near him, the smoldering corpses of two of his followers were a grim prophesy of his own future. The fox rushed him, and the demonic undead was thrown back several meters.  
  
Hikari continued to decimate the enemies in front and around her, but she also found it harder and harder to control the P'o within her, especially since she still was in her demon form. When she was certain that she would be able to fend off any attacker in her human form, she shifted back, deactivating the demonic gift.  
  
She was short one undead opponent: the sword wielder had ran off, but she didn't see where. The flesh manipulator was much too slow, and her goblin sword cut him to ribbons before continuing with the humans.  
  
Another inhuman cry, and she now say Jin being torn off by something... Kaze was holding his hands forward, and the wind appeared to come alive in invisible blades that slashed mercilessly at the vampire, feeding the flames on him instead of smothering them. All the humans stopped fighting... at least the few of them that remained, and soon broke off running, exiting via a hole in the wall the first and wisest kuei-jin had punched to escape.  
  
Hikari watched the retreat of the others, her inner self fighting back the P'o which was still trying to gain control over her, but now in her human form with less success.   
  
Then she turned around to look for Kaze.   
  
When she laid eyes on him, she broke into a run and quickly reached him, pulling the Kitsune into a tight hug.  
  
"Oh gods Kaze, I was so afraid. I woke up and you were not there and no message...and then Jin showed up and..." she stopped.  
  
She was indeed feeling joy at seeing him alive and that was something very rare for a Kuei-jin. Pure, untainted joy.   
  
Kaze shifted back to human form, caressing her hair with the hand that wasn't holding her.  
  
"I'm sorry, my pretty." He whispered. "When his mortal goons ambushed me, I knew there had to be more spies around; I couldn't lead them home, so I followed them and snuck in here. I was about to send a message when you showed up. I'm sorry."  
  
She nodded into his embrace, but didn't say anything anymore. Words couldn't express the joy she felt and the happiness over the fact that she was indeed feeling this joy.   
  
She rested in his arms a long while, amidst all the destruction, not caring for the world that she had just helped to destroy some of her kind.   
  
"Hi... kari..." Jin rose, demon form lost, but smoking and bleeding, almost into Final Death. "The court... the... they... will... deal you..."  
  
She jumped slightly and turned, slipping from Kaze's ambrace slowly and approaching Jin.   
  
"It was all your fault Jin. All your fault..." she whispered.  
  
"I will deal with the court when the time arises. I doubt that they are waiting around the corner to deal with me."  
  
"Trai... tor..." He croaked, his arms trembling, rage still moving him, but without his strength, he could only direct it inward. "Consort to... animals..."  
  
"Besides, " Kaze joined her. "I heard your little friends trying to talk you out of this, Jin-kun. 'The Court will not approve' was said a lot of times."  
  
"And I do think so, too. The court has had no reason so far to test or criticize me openly, for I have always been loyal, moreso than you. If you want to think back to the start of this massacre, you were the one issuing the attack order, so it was YOU attacking ME. The court doesn't like Kuei-jin attacking Kuei-jin with no valid reason."  
  
"And the Elemental Courts will back her up if it comes to that. I called the spirits of Wind and Fire tonight, and they were witness." Kaze said.  
  
"Curse... both of you..." Jin's legs gave up, and he fell hardly. "Both of you... to Hell..."  
  
"Oh, Jin..." Hikari whispered and inclined her head slightly.  
  
"Always trying to be the winner, even if you went all the wrong road. I could have killed you here and now, but I won't."  
  
She nodded slightly and turned to Kaze again.  
  
"Shall we go?"  
  
"Let's." He said, taking her arm. "We have places to go, people to see... aaaaand... " He pinched her backside softly and playfully. "Things to do."  
  
"Heh!" she playfully batted at his hand and leaned into him as they both left the scene of the massacre behind.   
  
For the moment, she couldn't care less about any courts. Kaze had once more managed to make her feel like she was human. To let her feel human emotions. And once again she was edging further on along her Dharmic path. 


End file.
